the specific words of a literary work that may be relevant to understanding the meaning. Contexts may be economic, social, cultural, historical, literary, • Context is the background, environment, setting, framework, or surroundings of events or occurrences. Simply, context means circumstances forming a background of an event, idea or statement, in such a way as to enable readers to understand the narrative or a literary piece. It is necessary in writing to provide • Whenever writers use a quote or a fact from some source, it becomes necessary to provide their readers some information about the source, to give context to its use. This piece of information is called context. Context illuminates the meaning and relevance of the text, and may be something cultural, BIOGRAPHIC AL CONTEXT biographical context/authorial context • -places a particular literary work within the context of the author’s life. Consider the circumstances under which the literary work was written. While exploring biographical context, useful sources include biographies of the author, autobiographies or memoirs by the author or by people who knew him or her, and critical works that give close attention to • To say that authors write from their own experiences is an exaggeration (imagination is important, too), but their lives always influence their work in some way. That does not mean, however, that the author identifies with the main character or even the narrator in a novel or the speaker in a poem, or that the events or experiences he or she describes actually happened and the • Authorial context connects a particular work to the author’s life. Did it come at the beginning of his or her career, in the middle, or at the end? Had that career so far been successful or not? In some cases, one book represents the • Consider the circumstances under which a work was written. What was going on in the author’s life? What personal circumstances, or specific event, either at the time of composition or in the past, • In short, how does this work fit into the author’s life and what influence did that life have on it? While exploring biographical context, useful sources include biographies of the author, autobiographies or memoirs by the author or by people who knew him or her, and critical works that give Example: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Slave: Jim Mark Twain’s father owns slaves. LINGUISTIC CONTEXT - discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its SOCIOCULTUR AL CONTEXT It is evident when literary works respond in some way to the society in which they were written, and most often (though not always) that response takes the form of criticism. Sociocultural context is about how a particular literary work Sources you might investigate include works (books and articles) of history or sociology that talk about the strengths, weaknesses, and changes occurring in the society during the period in which the literary work is set, and critical works that emphasize the connection
