HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL

HISTORICAL-BIOGRAPHICAL

PRESENTED BY: UNIT 8

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BiographicalCriticism

HistoricalCriticism

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History Criticism

History Criticism

- From the Greek word Historia meaning “inquiry, knowledge” - explores the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts surrounding the creation and reception of a work of literature. - uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly. -understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature. -It includes facts about the author’s life and the historical and social circumstances of the time.

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Goals: - To study the work’s relationship to its own period and other periods - To place the work within an evolving tradition or genre - To illuminate the author’s culture

Questions to ask oneself when doing historical criticism:

Strategies for historical criticism:

1. How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
2. What were the common themes and motifs in the literature of the time period?
3. How important is the historical context to interpreting the work?
4. What position is the author taking regarding the events or conditions of the time?

1. Research the author's time (the political history, literary period, economic history, cultural climate, philosophers of the time, and social environment).
2. Research the time in which the story takes place.
3. Research the characteristics of the literary period.

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Steps in LitCrit Writing

Methods:

1. Source criticism - questions whether texts came from a singular source, author, or historical context, and seeks to untangle the sources present within any given text.
2. Form criticism - seeks to understand the claims of a text by analyzing its linguistic patterns.
3. Redaction criticism - analyzes how redactors (i.e., editors) wove together various traditions into one whole.

Steps: Historical-critical methods are the specific procedures: 1. Examine the text's historical origins, such as/the time, place in which the text was written; its sources. 2. Examine the events, dates, persons, places, things, and customs that are mentioned or implied in the text.

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Biographical Criticism

-From the Greek word Bios meaning “life” -examines the effect and influence of the writer's life on his or her work. -knowing something about the writer's life helps us to more fully understand his or her work. -Analyzes the author’s biography to show the relationship between the author’s life and their work of literatures

Questions to ask oneself when doing biographical criticism:

Biographical Criticism Strategies:

1. Research the author's life.
2. Research the author's beliefs.

1. Are facts about the writer's life relevant to your understanding of the work?
2. Are characters and incidents in the work versions of the writer's own experiences?
3. How do you think the writer's values are reflected in the work?
4. How do the connections explain the author's purpose and the overall meaning of the work?

Steps in LitCrit Writing:

Steps: 1. Understand the Author 2. Understand the Author's World 3. Add perspective

Note: DO NOT assume the work retells the author's life, and avoid using unsound sources of information about the author's life.

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Checklist:

1. What influences-persons, ideas, movements, events- evident in the writer's life does the work reflect? 2. To what extent are the events described in the work of a direct transfer of what happened in the author's actual life? 3. What modifications of the actual events has the writer made in the literary work? For what possible purposes? 4. Why might the writer have altered his or her actual experiences in the literary work? 5. What are the effects of the differences between actual events and their literary transformation in the work? 6. What has the author revealed in the work about his or her characteristic modes of thought, perceptions, or emotion? What place does the work have in the author's literary development and career?

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