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Report On Biographical Approach in Literary Criticism

The document discusses the biographical approach to literary criticism. It involves using biographical information about an author's life to illuminate aspects of their literary works, but not reconstructing the author's entire biography. Biographical details are raw materials authors transform and rearrange to develop themes, not necessarily reveal autobiographical facts. The approach facilitates understanding works of art, not just showing biographical influence.

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Ma Alelie Navarro
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782 views

Report On Biographical Approach in Literary Criticism

The document discusses the biographical approach to literary criticism. It involves using biographical information about an author's life to illuminate aspects of their literary works, but not reconstructing the author's entire biography. Biographical details are raw materials authors transform and rearrange to develop themes, not necessarily reveal autobiographical facts. The approach facilitates understanding works of art, not just showing biographical influence.

Uploaded by

Ma Alelie Navarro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BIOGRAPHICAL

APPROACH IN
LITERARY
CRITICISM
Biographical Criticism
 The work is primarily the product
of a unique individual.
 Interpret it in terms of the author’s
life or personality.
 To understand it is to have an
adequate knowledge of the author’s
life.
Biographical Approach
Why can’t people separate the
literary work from its creator?
 The author caused the work to come
into being.
 Readers are inclined to know the
author.
 Knowing the author arouses interest
among readers.
Biographical Approach

Not a matter of reconstructing or


reading the biography of an author
to elicit interest in a work
Entails the use of biographical
information to illuminate various
aspects of the text
What Are Biographical Details
For

1. To reveal the meaning of obscure


details in a literary work
EXAMPLE:
o Merida, 1969 by William Matthews
O tristes tropiques. Our pretty
wives were sad and so were we.”
What Are Biographical Details
For

EXAMPLE:
o Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
A wind blew out of a cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my beautiful Annabel
Lee.
What Are Biographical Details
For

EXAMPLE:
o On His Deceased Wife by John Milton
Her face was [veiled], yet to my fancied sight,
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin’d
So clear, as in no face with more delight.
What Are Biographical Details
For

2. To clarify the meaning of allusions


used by writers to enrich the
meaning of their works
EXAMPLES:
o Noli and Fili by Jose P. Rizal
What Are Biographical Details
For
3. To explain the thematic concerns of
a writer
EXAMPLE:
o A Simple Lust by Dennis Brutus
• The volume has the subtitle
Collected Poems of South African Jail
and Exile.
Biographical Approach

Slight similarities between textual


details and aspects of the author’s
life should not lead the reader to
conclude that the work is
biographical in nature.
“Even when a work of art contains
elements which can be surely identified as
biographical, these elements will be so
rearranged and transformed in a work
that they lose all their specifically
personal meaning and become simply
concrete human material, integral
elements of a work.”
- Wellek and Warren, 1956
Biographical Approach
Biographical elements are raw
materials used by the author to
develop the theme he wants to
project.
Very seldom does an author use a
biographical detail to reveal
something about himself.
Biographical Approach
A writer may introduce a
biographical detail in his work, but
he could alter or distort it to suit his
purpose.
Biographical elements and the
literary details based on these are
not one and the same thing.
Biographical Approach

Use the approach not merely to


show that a particular work has
some basis in the life of the author
but to facilitate understanding of the
literary text as a work of art.
CHECKPOINT
Sometimes we encounter literary
works which have autobiographical
elements. Should we demand that the
autobiographical elements be
truthful, i.e. that they should
correspond exactly to the author’s
feelings, thoughts, and experience?
In biography, we can and should
demand truthfulness. It should be a
faithful picture of feelings, thoughts,
and experiences of the person
whose life is being recounted.
Literature, especially fiction, is not a
mere documentation but an
invention – a reshaping of human
experience in artistic form.
Guide Questions
What facts about the author’s life
suggest ideas in the work? Did
anything that happened to the
author affect his choice of themes or
subject matter?
What was the author’s world view?
Which of the author’s beliefs seem
to be reflected in the work?
Guide Questions
What commentary on the work did
the author make? Does it point to
ideas in the piece?
What influences – persons, ideas,
movements, events – evident in the
writer’s life does the work reflect?
Guide Questions
What modifications of the actual
events has the writer made in the
literary work?
Why might the writer have altered
his actual experience in the literary
work?
Guide Questions
What are the effects of the
differences between actual events
and their literary transformation in
the work?
What has the author revealed in the
work about his or her characteristic
modes of thought, perceptions, or
emotion?

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