Need help from Literary brainiacs...

[Theta]

My daughter is reading a story that is set in present time, but then flashes back to the same place many years earlier. What is the "setting" of the story??

Would it be present time since that is when the story began or would it be many years ago the time of the flashback?

 

[ems_mom]

Not a braniac, but wouldn't the setting be the actual place itself, regardless of the physical date?

 

[belle&sebastiansmom]

Setting in literary terms is time and place. Setting would be both the present and the past, and also your dd could be more specific with setting and list exact location.

 

[Theta]

Setting in literary terms is time and place. Setting would be both the present and the past, and also your dd could be more specific with setting and list exact location.

This is how she answered the question on the assignment. She was very clear, said the setting began in present time in Florida and "flashbacked" to hundreds of years ago in Florida. She even used the word flashback on her assignment. The teacher marked it wrong and said it was the time of the flashback.

 

[suejai]

Are the flashbacks recurring or does it start in the present and then flashback to the past and stay there for the most part.

If it's the first then the story is set in the present. As long as the flashbacks are just used to illustrate a point and the main thrust of the story is in the present.

If it's the second then I think you could make a case for it being set in the past. i guess it would depend on where the climax comes. For example would you say Titanic was set in the past or the present? I would say it was set in the past, using the present as a kind of foreshadowing. If that makes any sense.

What book is your daughter reading?

 

[christiane]

The story is being told in the present, but if the actual events that make up the plot occurred in the past, then the literary setting is indeed, the "flashback" setting.

For example, if you sat down today and starting telling your friends about your last great Disney trip & everything that occurred during the trip, then the actual story is the Disney trip and not that you sat down on Tuesday at 6pm to tell the story.

 

[Rora]

The story is being told in the present, but if the actual events that make up the plot occurred in the past, then the literary setting is indeed, the "flashback" setting.

This is correct.

Good luck to your DD!