Historical Perspective to Literary

Analysis
The Importance of the Historical
Perspective
Historical novels often make
important comments on the human
condition in a particular era.
Understanding the human
condition and social pressures
helps understand the work
The Concept of Historical
Perspective
Traditional historical perspective
asserts that there “ are ‘facts’ that we
can know, with some degree of
certainty, and as readers we… need to
gather them…, and fit them together…,
and cautiously relate them to literary
works” (Lynn 145).
 Historical Criticism
Goals
• To strive to understand a literary text as a
product of the social, cultural, and
intellectual context in which it was created.
• To examine how the text was initially
received by readers as well as how its
reception has changed over time.
• To examine how the author’s own
experiences may be reflected in the text.
Two Ways to Approach Literature
from a Historical Perspective –
Divergence of Thought
Old Historicism looks at the time in which a
piece was written to determine how it was
interpreted by its contemporaries.

New Historicism demonstrates how a literary

work reflects ideas and attitudes of the time in
which it was written.
(DiYanni 1565).
 Why Demonstrate How a Work
Reflects its Time?
Many literary works comment on power
struggles that are occurring during the time
in which they were written
Examining other texts of the same time
period, such as diaries, records, and
institutions helps understand the literary
work better
 A Checklist of Historical and New
Historicist Critical Questions
1. When was the work written? When was it published? How was it received by the
critics and public? Why?
2. What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards of taste and value
during the time period it was published and reviewed?
3. What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the action of the work were
prevalent during the time the work was written and published?
4. What kinds of power relations does the work describe, reflect, embody?
5. How do the power relations reflected in the literary work manifest themselves in
the cultural practices and social institutions prevalent during the timer the work
was written and published?
6. What other types of historical documents, cultural artifacts, or social institutions
might be analyzed in conjunction with particular literary works? How might
close reading of such nonliterary “ text” illuminate those literary works?
7. To what extent can we understand the past as it is reflected in the literary work?
To what extent does the work reflect differences from the ideas and values of its
time? (Di Yanni 1567).
Works Cited
DiYanni, Robert. Literature Approaches to Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2008.

Guerin, Wilfred L., Labor, Earle, Morgan, Lee,

Reesman, Jeanne C., Willingham, John R. A
Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 5th
ed. NY: Oxford U P, 2005. Print.