1. Historical and Biographical Lenses
Liza Dee
Eve Lee
Sophie Marion

2. 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

3. Questions Considered Historical approach: Biographical 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?

4. Advantages Gives information about the author and the time period
The ability to make comparisons
May approach a text from numerous perspectives and schema
Culture
Discourse
Ideology

5. Disadvantages
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

6. Where/How to Apply This Lens In YOUR Life
Viewing Art
Analyzing Literature based on the Publication Date and/or Author
Reading Periodicals
English and History Classes
Screenwriting

7. 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

8. Uses English class History class CI (Social studies) 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

9. An example where you can apply the historical lenses – Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire Trailer #1 (HBO). YouTube. 20 Sept Web. 18 Oct <