Historical or Biographical Critical Lens

Though generally author-based and historical criticism are seen as two different categories, for the purpose of simplicity, we are going to combine them together in this text. An author-based/historical critical lens is focused on uncovering the person of the author in a text. Since this text focuses on discovering the voices of women through history, this approach can be very useful in helping us to get to know the women behind the texts we read.

When looking through this ‘lens,’ our goal is to find out as much as possible about the author and their life and context. We might read a biography on the author or read about the time in history in which they lived. Learning about the author’s life and where and when they lived can tell us a lot about a text, and vice versa.

For example, many students have trouble with Emily Dickinson’s poems. They don’t seem to make sense with their strange punctuation and fixation on death. But, as we investigate her life, we find that she didn’t intend for her poetry to ever be read. In fact, her poems are like a journal that she kept of her thoughts and experiences. Further, discovering that she lived close to the front lines of the Civil War helps us to make sense of her preoccupation with death.

Here’s a video on Historical Criticism. The speaker in this video takes a similar approach to what’s described here: