settingis

Settingis is a term used in some literary and media studies to describe the systematic analysis and design of narrative settings, including physical locations, temporal frame, cultural milieu, and social structures that shape character actions and plot. It is a neologism that emerged in critical discussions of world-building during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, though it is not universally standardized.

The concept treats settings as active components of storytelling rather than mere backdrop. Settingis covers geography, climate, technology, politics, language, social norms, and institutional arrangements, as well as how these elements interact with character goals and thematic concerns. It also considers how settings evolve over the course of a work and how they constrain or enable choices for characters and players in interactive media.

In practice, settingis provides a framework for analyzing how place and time influence narrative tension, mood, and meaning. It is used in literary analysis, film and theatre production discussions, and game studies to compare how different authors or directors encode world-building through design choices such as scenery, architecture, and everyday routines.

Critics argue that settingis can be redundant with existing concepts like setting, world-building, and mise-en-scène, while supporters contend that it helps frame the dynamic relationship between environment and action as a coherent analytic object.

See also: world-building, mise-en-scène, setting.