Context: why is it important? What is the best way to incorporate it?

Where is context important? Ao3: Exploring the ways in which the context (when and where it was written, what the social and historical background is) influenced the text; how it has been read/ received in different contexts since then. Paper 1 (‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’) AO1: 12.5%, AO3: 50%, AO4: 25%, AO5: 12.5% Paper 2 (‘The Gothic,’ ‘Dorian Gray’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’) Part a) AO1: 12.5%, AO2: 75%, AO3: 12.5% Coursework (‘The History Boys’ and ‘The Go-Between’): A01 – 20%, A02 – 20%, A03 – 20%, A04 – 20%, A05 – 20%

What does context cover? When and where the text was written and how this has affected its content/ themes/ ideas. When and where the text is set and how the writer portrays the social/ historical/ cultural conditions. How the text has been received by a number of audiences/ readers over the years/ in different places and different social/ political climates. How do you know? Reading critical essays and acknowledging when they were written and by who? Thinking about yourself as a reader and the ways in which your context affects your response to texts; Knowing about the writer’s life: where and when they lived; what was happening at the time (and how this influenced them in writing the novel).

Examples:

Our own world: What are the most popular books/ films/ programmes of our time (in the Western world)? Why?

How do you incorporate it into essays? Know about the context before reading/ before your second reading of the text. Use context as a foundation point for argument: make contextual points explicit in your introduction and develop them within each point. Make reference to context in every single paragraph (preferably embedded and not just tagged onto the end).

Your turn: When and where the text was written and how this has affected its content/ themes/ ideas. When and where the text is set and how the writer portrays the social/ historical/ cultural conditions. How the text has been received by a number of audiences/ readers over the years/ in different places and different social/ political climates.