Critical Approaches to Literature
Critical approaches to literature provide frameworks to help the reader to interpret and evaluate literary text.
The Biographical-Historical Approach assumes that the text is a reflection of the author’s life and times. Readers ask the essential question, “What does the work reveal about the author or history?” While the text is not biographical, it is important for the reader to understand the context in which the author lived in order to fully interpret and evaluate the text. This approach is effective with works that recreate an historical or social context, such as Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, Michael Schaara’s novel The Killer Angels, Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, John Whittier’s poem “Barbara Frietchie,” or Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”