Setting

Setting

• There are two major settings—the world of the narrator and the ‘story world’ or diegetic world– The story world is the time-space continuum

within which the story action takes place– The discourse setting is the time-space continuum

represented in the telling of the story

Setting

• Each story will have a macro-setting, the space and time covered by the entire story– This can be centuries and wide ranges of solar

systems, galaxies, etc.• Micro-settings: Individual scenes, episodes,

etc. are likely to occur within much more limited time and space constraints

Macro-setting v. micro-setting

• Macrosetting: Los Angeles in 1997• Microsettings: – Home room in Riverdale High School, November

17– Gym class the same day– The protagonist’s bedroom, 10 PM that night– The protagonist’s bedroom, 7 PM on Saturday of

the following weekend

• The micro-setting refers to the time, place and immediate surroundings within which a single chunk of story action takes place– For example: • a large tent in the Sahara Desert in 1904• within a spaceship traveling to Mars in the autumn of

2027• a corporate office building in New York City, February

2008• Gondor in Middle Earth in the Third Age

Conditions

• Time and place can be seen to determine weather, technology, social structure, culture, etc.– Small town v. suburbia v. inner city– Ancient Rome v. contemporary Rome– Revolutionary United States v. Revolutionary

Russia

A major distinction

• Is the setting for the narrative – Realistic?– Fantastic?

Realistic settings

• Realistic settings either are, or follow the rules of, actual physical places and times where real people could be found—not just story characters• They vary in the distance from the audience in terms

of time, space, culture and experience• Historical v. contemporary• Foreign v. domestic• Poor v. rich v. middle class

– Characters in realistic settings may be either real or fictional and may be either realistic or fantastic

Realistic settings

• Even real places that are distant from the audience and follow very different rules than the audience member is used to can seem ‘fantastic’– Audiences must learn the crucial rules of the

setting to understand the plot and characters– The setting may seem so foreign and unbelievable

to the audience member as to act as a fantasy setting• Rwanda

Realistic settings

• The depth of detail provided and the ‘correctness’ of that detail will significantly impact the audience experience of realism and influence their suspension of disbelief– Some directors/art directors are obsessed with

providing realistic presentations of historic or contemporary settings• 1945 Japanese submarine toilet seat

Simple v. elaborate settings

• Sometimes very simple settings are used in order to avoid drawing attention away from the plot and the characters– THX 1138

Fantastic settings

• Fantastic settings are those that do not follow the laws of physics, etc. as we understand them

• They are often, but not always, inhabited by fantastic characters– Magic– Science unknown to us (future advances)

Setting and exposition

• The more psychologically ‘distant’ from the audience the setting is, the more exposition will be needed to allow the audience member to follow the narrative– Germany during the Dark Ages may well be more

foreign to a contemporary audience than the surface of the Moon

Setting and character

• Character is intimately tied to setting– Certain character types are appropriate for certain

settings– Attitudes and behavior that are appropriate in one

setting would be unacceptable in another– Features of the setting may provide clues to the

personality of various characters

Setting and plot

• “a setting delimits the possible actions in a narrative. As such, the setting is connected to the plot, as the delimitation of actions has a part to play in the nature of the possible plot.”

• (Talib, Narrative Theory)

– Forms of escape– Available choices to satisfy motivations– Chance factors• Traffic accidents

The setting sets limits on narrative action

• The state of technology• Social rules of custom and ethics• The physical layout of buildings, etc.

• The most significant requirement is that rules must be consistent– Magic must have limits and magical powers must

follow rules– Too much magic, fantasy, etc. will strain the

audience’s acceptance even of a fantastic setting

• Social or physical conflict is inherent in many settings– Events always occur in a given time and place• Many stories are based on the presence of the

characters at significant historical events

Stereotypical settings

• As is true of character types, there are a number of stereotypical settings– Western saloon– Hospital emergency room– Battlefield– Haunted house– Fraternity house

Settings may determine the tone of the narrative

• CSI, CSI: New York, CSI: Miami• Metropolis v. Gotham City• The Shining• Gladiator• Heroes• Brothers and Sisters• ER• A History of Violence

Law and Order