Writing Help 129 | - Freelance Writer
Apr 05, 2013 | #1
Terms You Need for Writing about the Novel
If you have managed to emerge from university with no idea what the term setting means with regard to literature and film, it is obvious that you have created a duplicate of yourself to attend class since at least middle school. Setting is one of the first and most important terms that gets taught in public schools, and without it, any analysis of a novel will be noticeably incomplete. Some aspects of the term are intuitive, and can be easily derived from the common uses of the term in everyday life. Some, however, are specific to literary analysis, and so must be memorized in the definition of the term.
If something is set somewhere, it is indicated that it has been placed there, that it occupies the place where it was put. Most obviously then, the term setting describes in what place a story occurs. This place can be considered in as specific or as general a way as you like, depending on what will have the most relevance for an analysis of the story at hand. For example, telling me that a novel is set in Mongolia will immediately inform me, a Western reader, that I am in for a lesson in a culture and geography with which I am unfamiliar. Novels can stretch across many distant places, and it is not uncommon in the modern spy thriller for a novel to be set in many locations around the globe. Of course, perhaps the larger geographical location is never mentioned, so that I do not know what country, or even what hemisphere the story unfolds in. In this case, sometimes the scale of the story is smaller, and so I can describe the story as being set in three primary locations: the mall, Billy's house, and the graveyard. This becomes relevant when the action is confined to a very limited space, and even if I knew where all of these places were more generally, it might be useful to describe the setting in these more specific terms as well, especially if large parts of the story take place in each, and each contributes to the general structure of the novel.
Thinking about place again, although this time more metaphorically, we can see that events and people also occupy a certain place in time, and so setting also involves the time in which a story is set. As for geographical place, the time of a story can range from the very limited (minutes or even seconds), to entire lifetimes and beyond. Most novels, however, are bound to a particular era or period, and the 1920s, the early 80s, medieval times, and so on, are common time aspects of setting. Again, the time in which the story is set serves to create a certain mood and feel, as well as reader expectations. The time, like the place, can be shown to us directly through on-screen or chapter-leading captions or through the comments of a character, or indirectly through objects and behaviors associated with that period; this second method is far more subtle, and if it is done correctly, realizing when and where something is happening can be exciting.
The final aspect of setting is not as intuitive, but it is no less important than the other two, and can often be deduced from them. The circumstances surrounding the events of a story go hand-in-hand with the time and place to create a certain mood and feel in the mind of the reader, and certain times and places strongly suggest certain circumstances, just as certain circumstances can immediately clue you in to the time and place. For example, if I know a story is set in Berlin in 1942, I will immediately know the circumstances of the film will be closely tied to the Second World War. Similarly, if I see soldiers marching with swastikas on their arms, I will know that the film is set in wartime Europe. You can use any of the three elements of time, place, and circumstances to deduce the missing elements, and doing so will greatly enhance your experience of a given novel.
Setting
If you have managed to emerge from university with no idea what the term setting means with regard to literature and film, it is obvious that you have created a duplicate of yourself to attend class since at least middle school. Setting is one of the first and most important terms that gets taught in public schools, and without it, any analysis of a novel will be noticeably incomplete. Some aspects of the term are intuitive, and can be easily derived from the common uses of the term in everyday life. Some, however, are specific to literary analysis, and so must be memorized in the definition of the term.
If something is set somewhere, it is indicated that it has been placed there, that it occupies the place where it was put. Most obviously then, the term setting describes in what place a story occurs. This place can be considered in as specific or as general a way as you like, depending on what will have the most relevance for an analysis of the story at hand. For example, telling me that a novel is set in Mongolia will immediately inform me, a Western reader, that I am in for a lesson in a culture and geography with which I am unfamiliar. Novels can stretch across many distant places, and it is not uncommon in the modern spy thriller for a novel to be set in many locations around the globe. Of course, perhaps the larger geographical location is never mentioned, so that I do not know what country, or even what hemisphere the story unfolds in. In this case, sometimes the scale of the story is smaller, and so I can describe the story as being set in three primary locations: the mall, Billy's house, and the graveyard. This becomes relevant when the action is confined to a very limited space, and even if I knew where all of these places were more generally, it might be useful to describe the setting in these more specific terms as well, especially if large parts of the story take place in each, and each contributes to the general structure of the novel.Thinking about place again, although this time more metaphorically, we can see that events and people also occupy a certain place in time, and so setting also involves the time in which a story is set. As for geographical place, the time of a story can range from the very limited (minutes or even seconds), to entire lifetimes and beyond. Most novels, however, are bound to a particular era or period, and the 1920s, the early 80s, medieval times, and so on, are common time aspects of setting. Again, the time in which the story is set serves to create a certain mood and feel, as well as reader expectations. The time, like the place, can be shown to us directly through on-screen or chapter-leading captions or through the comments of a character, or indirectly through objects and behaviors associated with that period; this second method is far more subtle, and if it is done correctly, realizing when and where something is happening can be exciting.
The final aspect of setting is not as intuitive, but it is no less important than the other two, and can often be deduced from them. The circumstances surrounding the events of a story go hand-in-hand with the time and place to create a certain mood and feel in the mind of the reader, and certain times and places strongly suggest certain circumstances, just as certain circumstances can immediately clue you in to the time and place. For example, if I know a story is set in Berlin in 1942, I will immediately know the circumstances of the film will be closely tied to the Second World War. Similarly, if I see soldiers marching with swastikas on their arms, I will know that the film is set in wartime Europe. You can use any of the three elements of time, place, and circumstances to deduce the missing elements, and doing so will greatly enhance your experience of a given novel.