Question

Why is it important to understand the background of literature before reading literature? THINK:how does society or background influence literature or writing?

Answer 1

Writing comes from within the person that’s why it is so special about it. It’s that person own imagination, their own creation. There’s this idea called nature vs nurture and it’s all about how your upbringing can affect you mentally. Where the person came from, their background is what molded them as a person and thus influenced their writing. Learning about literature is essential to be good at analyzing the text. More critical thinking.

Answer 2

History plays a fundamental role in shaping literature: every novel, play or poem one reads is influenced by the political context in which it is written, the people that the author knows and the wider society that frames the entire work. How can we even consider reading literature without understanding the work through its historical context?

Step-by-step explanation:

Literature helps us to understand the trends and ideas of politics, culture and ideology that influenced particular societies at a given time. For example, in Shelley's Frankenstein, we learn about the apprehension over man's overreaching greed and the war that dominated Victorian Britain between science and nature. That alone would show that context is crucial in deciding a literary text's meaning. When one ignores context, many completely overlook a particular influence or feature of the text and ultimately miss the true sense of the piece. Without context, meaning can be created from literature, but context can also be used to establish a different outcome on the same piece. Exploring context is essential but it is not inherently critical.