An Overview (Historical Criticism)
Benefits
Origins
Characteristics (Biographical Criticism)
Random Facts
100
How the history effects the work/"the world behind the text".
What is Historical Criticism?
100
You need background knowledge.
What must be known to understand books through the lens of Historical Criticism?
100
Use of Historical Criticism began in this century.
What is the the 11th century?
100
This is what a biographical critique aims to do.
Analyzes the effects and influences of the writer's life on his/her work?
100
Shows the history of contact between black Africans and English men in the first act.
What does Shakespeare's Othello show in regards to black Africans and English men?
200
Society, economy and politics during that time period.
What is Historical Criticism affected by?
200
Understanding the author's life helps.
What helps understand the literary work?
200
Biographical critiques date back to this time period.
What is the Renaissance Period?
200
This is a common misconception about biographical criticism.
What is the retelling of the author's life?
200
Hippolyte Taine said this.
Who said 'History had been transformed...by the study of literature'?
300
By understanding the time it takes place in, the problems, anxieties, and biases of the time period.
How do we use Historical Criticism to understand literature?
300
Why some critics believe some of the world's great and lasting pieces of literature have lasted so long.
What is important of timeless significance?
300
This man used biographical critiques heavily in "The Lives of Poets".
Who is Samuel Johnson?
300
Biographical criticism is often confused with this.
Historical criticism?
300
The year Shakespeare's Othello was written.
What is significant about the year 1604?
400
We can observe connections between the work and the world at that time.
Why is understanding what was happening during the time period the work important?
400
The author's personal background, environment, and historic era
A historical critic would believe that all artworks are determined by what?
400
They century in which Historical Criticism became popular.
What is the 19th/20th Century?
400
Author's life that may be reflected in their literary work.
Who is Charles Dickens/John Steinbeck/Walt Whitman/William Shakespeare?
400
It can be viewed in Shakespeare's Hamlet through the eyes of a historical critic.
What is the Political Status of the Elizabethan Era.
500
The interpretation of a work will mutate over time and, be perverted from the interpretation the author intended.
What happens as a result of the ever changing attitudes of society?
500
In the way it focuses on the individual.
What is the main way literature can illuminate history?
500
Several things that a biographical critique aims to do.
What are connecting characters, clarifying literally allusions, and understanding themes in relation to the author?
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