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Literature vocabulary · Core Concepts

Setting

Meaning in literature, with examples

/ˈsetɪŋ/nounCore term

In literature, setting means: The time and place in which a story happens, including its social background, historical period and atmosphere.

In Turkish: zaman ve mekan, mekan, olayların geçtiği yer

How it is used

Used in every kind of analysis and review. A novel is set in a place or period; critics describe a vivid, bleak or claustrophobic setting and discuss how the setting shapes the characters. 'The story is set in 1950s Istanbul' is a very common pattern.

Example sentences

  1. The setting, a remote village in winter, makes the characters feel trapped.

  2. Halfway through the novel, the setting moves from a quiet Aegean town to wartime Istanbul.

Common collocations

  • the story is set in
  • historical setting
  • rural setting
  • vivid setting
  • time and setting
  • moodThe general feeling or atmosphere that a text creates in the reader, such as tension, sadness, peace or fear.
  • themeA central idea or message about life that a literary work explores, such as love, loss, freedom or identity, and what the work suggests about it.
  • plotThe series of connected events in a story and the way the writer arranges them, especially how one event causes another.
  • expositionThe opening part of a story or play that introduces the characters, setting and background information the reader needs to follow the plot.

More terms: Core Concepts

Practise with graded reading

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