donnée

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A set of literary or artistic principles or assumptions on which a creative work is based.
• noun A set of notions, facts, or conditions that governs and shapes an act or a way of life.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The motif or fundamental idea of a literary or dramatic composition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun Lit., given; hence, in a literary work, as a drama or tale, that which is assumed as to characters, situation, etc., as a basis for the plot or story.