setting - le mans university

Setting

• A/ Definition

• B/ Functions

• C/ Method

• D/ Conditions for description

• E/ Spatial form of a text or book

adapted from

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

A/ Definition (1):

dictionary definition

• Setting : Pronunciation /sɛtɪŋ/ noun

• (1) the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place:a romantic house in a wonderful setting beside the River Wye.

• (2) the place and time at which a play, novel, or film is represented as happening:short stories with a contemporary setting.

• (3) the scenery and stage furniture used in a play or film.

A/ Definition (2):

simplified literary definition

• Setting = place and space where the story

is set

• Textual construct

• « Passive » setting (« backdrop ») VS

« active » setting

B/ Functions (1)

• Referential function = giving the illusion of reality (► direct telling)

• Dawn Arkin « What Should Your Story’s Setting Be? », Ezine, 2011

« Your setting […] should help transport the reader into the fictional world of your story and keep him there until the final page is turned, and beyond. »

B/ Functions (2)

• Verisimilitude = mimetic purpose (imitating the « real » world with the use of spatial markers: geographical/topographical references, spatial prepositions, place names)

• BUT a setting can be entirely fictional (ex: science fiction, Wessex of Thomas Hardy, etc).

B/ Functions (3)

• Symbolic function (► indirect showing):

– Creation, building up of the context and

atmosphere

– Didactic purpose (when the setting conveys a

message)

• Analogical function:

– When a parallel is established between the

setting and a character.

C/ Method

• Appellation =naming/toponymy and

onomastics

• Expansion = components, qualities,

properties

• Visual elements = maps, drawings, etc.

D/ Conditions for description

• Marked presence of a narrator

• Focalizer

• Pause

• Frame

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Edgar Allan Poe « The Oval

Portrait » (1840)

• Referential function

(not foregrounded)

• Creation of a gothic

atmosphere

• Symbolic dimension

• Analogical function

Source: http://kids.britannica.com

+ Wikimedia Commons

The Appennine Mountains

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Charles Dickens, Bleak House

(1853)


• Creation of

atmosphere through

symbolic funtion.

Source: http://www.fidnet.com

A map of Dickens’ London

Source: Wikimedia Commons +

geograph.org.uk

Lincoln’s Inn Hall

Source:

http://theedwardians.blogspot.com

Holborn Hill

Source:

http://www.magnetmagazine.com

N. Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in

Suck City: A Memoir (2004)


• Partly analogical

function

aaccessmaps.com+bostonrealest

ate.net+blog.redfin.com

Boston: South End

and Pine Street Inn

Source:

http://www.womanaroundtown.co

m

P. Eakins, « The Change », in The

Hungry Girls and Other Stories, (1999)

• Creation of an

atmosphere through

appellation

Source: http://mdah.state.ms.us

E.Welty, « Death of a Traveling

Salesman » (1941)

• Part of the plot

• Analogical function

• Symbolic value

A dirt road in Mississippi

Source: http://www.genre-x.com

Spatial form of the text: Mark Z.

Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000)

setting - le mans university

Documents