Biographical and Historical Criticism

What is…
• Biographical Criticism:
▫ 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
• Historical Criticism:
▫ 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
Questions for Biographical Criticism
• Biographical Criticism Strategies:
▫ Research the author's life.
▫ Research the author's beliefs.
• Questions to ask oneself when doing biographical criticism:
▫ Are facts about the writer's life relevant to your understanding
of the work?
▫ Are characters and incidents in the work versions of the writer's
own experiences?
▫ How do you think the writer's values are reflected in the work?
▫ How do the connections explain the author's purpose and the
overall meaning of the work?

Note: Do not assume the work retells the author's life, and avoid
using unsound sources of information about the author's life.
Questions for Historical Criticism
• Strategies for historical criticism:
▫ Research the author's time (the political history, literary period,
economic history, cultural climate, philosophers of the time, and
social environment).
▫ Research the time in which the story takes place.
▫ Research the characteristics of the literary period.
• Questions to ask oneself when doing historical criticism:
▫ How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
▫ What were the common themes and motifs in the literature of
the time period?
▫ How important is the historical context to interpreting the
work?
▫ What position is the author taking regarding the events or
conditions of the time?
1. Historical criticism looks at ‘the world behind the
text,’ by understanding the time the text was written
and what other events took place upon the writing of
the text.
2. Historical criticism investigates details about the
author’s life – about his family, birthplace, and
educational background that could be used to better
understand his works.
3. Historical criticism also investigates the context and
life of the reader of the text, by understanding current
events in relation to the meaning of the text.
Context
Context…
• the words that are used with a certain word or phrase that
helps to explain its meaning. To really know a word, you must be
able to use it in context. [in a sentence with other words]
• the words that surround other words and impact their
meaning, or the setting in which something occurs

▫ If the words that someone has said are taken or quoted out of
context, they are repeated without explaining the situation in
which they were said so that their meaning is changed.

▫ When taken out of context, his comments sound cruel, but he was
really only joking.
Example:
The nice young man courteously opened the door.

A. Hastily
B. Rudely
C. Slowly
D. Politely

By understanding the rest of the words in the sentence,

you can assume that the young man was kind and polite in
opening the door.
Look at the words inside the parentheses:
A. He was on the noon shift forging the dream to a reality fine
mean could slumber in, or whores, in antechamber, touch their
bone
B. Above the clogged engine a shadow traced the lines on
his foot, while shoot his brain with firelights the money did
C. None noticed the leap; what they saw was the red
imprint
D. He was, a day ago, threatened with dismissal for
displeasing a superior
E. Blank and Blank Co., Inc., regrets to announce that…
Performance Task #1
In a bond paper, write a critical interpretation of the
poem, A Man Falls to His Death by Cirilo Bautista.
You can use the ff. questions as your guide:

a. What are the details about Cirilo Bautista’s lifethat tells of his
background on scientific studies and humanities?
b. Was there a tragedy that happened during the author’s lifetime
that motivated him to write about this topic?
c. How do companies treat casualties from their companies these
days?

(Cite your references accordingly.)

Resources
Langdahl (2012). Biographical criticism. Retrieved
from
http://parkrose.orvsd.org/mod/resource/view.php?id
=8862
Langdahl (2012). Historical criticism. Retrieved from
http://parkrose.orvsd.org/mod/resource/view.php?id
=9033