Setting (fiction)
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Setting is a term in literature and drama usually referring to the time and location in which a story takes place. The term is relevant for various forms of literary expression, such as short stories, novels, dramas, and screenplays.
Broadly speaking, the setting provides the main backdrop for the story and often sets the overall tone for it as well. For example, many of William Faulkner's novels are set in in the early 20th Century in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional county in the American South. More specifically, the term "setting" can also refer to the time or location of a single scene in a larger story. In John Cheever's short story "The Swimmer", for example, the story's protagonist visits various swimming pools in his neighborhood with each each pool serving as its own unique setting.
Genre specifics
- In a theatrical production, the term "setting" can also refer to the actual scenery itself.
- In the literature associated with role-playing games, the term "setting" often refers to a specific campaign setting, meaning the fantasy world or other milieu in which a series of related game adventures occur.
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