The setting is where and when the story takes place. What is the most interesting setting you have found in a work of fiction? A battlefield? A haunted house? Another planet? Some of the best fiction ever written takes place in the most hum-drum environments: a suburban house, a farm, a small village. The eighteenth-century writer, Xavier de Maistre, wrote a travel book set entirely in his bedroom, where he was confined for weeks after being wounded in a duel.
See how much you know about 'setting' by trying this quiz on the subject.
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You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Setting
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Although a good author could surprise readers by using this as a setting for an unexpected story genre, the most likely genres to use this setting would be gothic, horror, fable, fairy tale, mystery or romance
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A 'utopia' is the ideal society, in which everything is perfect. Its opposite is 'dystopia' - a work of 'dystopian' fiction will be set in a miserable, harsh, fearful, oppressive future society
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As an example, Shakespeare's The Tempest begins: 'ACT 1, Scene 1 - On a Ship at Sea'
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Even if you do not know where the Yukon is (Western Canada), the word 'trail' clearly shows that the story does not begin on a highway
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The author, Jamaica Kincaid, sets much of her fiction in the West Indies
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Hills often appear to have a bluish tinge at dusk - but, in this context, 'blue' hints at a surprise
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'August 2002: Night Meeting' is set on the planet Mars. The futuristic story (written in 1950) imagined a time when humans had colonised Mars
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