historical setting
Era as context
A historical setting is the time and place in which a story, film, or other narrative unfolds when that period is notably in the past.
The term emphasizes both when and where: The novel's historical setting is Victorian London.
Writers choose historical settings for atmosphere, thematic resonance, or to explore how people lived in earlier eras.
- Ancient EgyptPharaonic Nile civilization
- Ancient GreeceClassical Mediterranean civilization
- Indus ValleyAncient South Asian river culture
- ancient ruinsDecayed structures from antiquity
- silk roadRoute surfaced with fine fabric
Cold War era · feudalism · court intrigue · monarchy · Mesopotamia · armor · Renaissance · prehistoric times · Enlightenment · medieval period · period drama · period piece · Roaring Twenties · fin de siècle · Industrial Revolution · cobblestone streets · gas lamps · Ottoman Empire
- narrative elementsscene, location, backdrop, flashback, foreshadowing
- stagingstaging, stage, set, set design, set dressing
- settingsdefault, settings, template, configure, privacy settings
- historiographyhistoriography, historiographer, secondary sources, historical interpretation, historical analysis
historical settingmodern setting
Present-day time and place
futuristic setting · the here and now · the present · modern era