Liza DeeEve Lee

Sophie Marion

Historical and Biographical Lenses

Definition Historical approach to literary criticism…

How does the work reflects the author’s time? Must be truly placed in historical context Should consider various types of history (social,

economic, political, intellectual, etc.) to understand the text

Biographical approach to literary criticism… How does the work reflects the author’s life? Should analyze the work against the author’s life for

meaning Should not take into account irrelevant facts

Questions Considered Historical approach:

What events concurrently occurred in history? How did history affect the author’s views/opinions? How did history affect content, style, language, and tone? Did the author alter historical events? How? Why?

Biographical approach: What biographical facts are included in the text? Have any facts been changed? How? Why? What does the text tell us about the author’s life? Do these insights increase or diminish our understanding of his/her

life? Does the author consider his/her life as typical or significant?

AdvantagesGives information about the

author and the time periodThe ability to make comparisonsMay approach a text from

numerous perspectives and schemaCultureDiscourseIdeology

• Equating the work's content with the author's life (or the character with the author

• Less-than-credible sources of information, particularly works that tend to be highly speculative or controversial unless verified by several sources.

• No history can be truly objective or comprehensive because history is constantly written and rewritten

• Loss of the ability to be creative in analyzation

Disadvantages

Where/How to Apply This Lens In YOUR Life

Viewing ArtAnalyzing Literature based on the Publication

Date and/or AuthorReading PeriodicalsEnglish and History ClassesScreenwriting

Examples The Scarlet Letter

To Kill A Mockingbird

A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner

In television: Mad Men

The Diary of Anne Frank

English class My Pet Virus

Shawn Decker’s life The Scarlett Letter

Historical context (1850)History class

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address Historical context of the time period (1861) Lincoln’s point of view

Hammurabi’s Code Historical context of the time period (1792 B.C.) Hammurabi’s philosophy as a leader

CI (Social studies) Columns

Point of view on the issue Paul Krugman and the Bush tax cuts

Uses

An example where you can apply the historical lenses – Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire Trailer #1 (HBO). YouTube. 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDyKgRCjf_U>.