Historical Literary Analysis
Historical analysis of literature allows readers to gain a better understanding of a text by becoming familiar with the time periods in which the piece takes place and when it was written. Reading literature outside of its historical context can make it difficult or even impossible to fully understand the text. Even readers who, upon first reading a text, believe they have a full understanding of the piece often realize a completely new meaning or interpretation after making themselves familiar with its historical context.
Without a full comprehension of the world the writer lived in or the events, lifestyles, and ideologies that shaped their mind, you cannot fully understand the actions of the characters they created or their intentions for writing what they did.
For example…
A character from a Jane Austen novel may be described only as “a man without a profession.” Present-day readers would likely equate being unemployed with being broke or down on your luck. However, during the time period of Austen’s novels, gentlemen were without employment though they were wealthy men with high social stations.
This is only a small example of how historical context can create a different interpretation of the text. For more examples and a larger scale implementation of this technique, make sure you read the rest of the Historical Analysis section of our website.
Sub-types
There are also subtypes of the historical analysis that narrow the historical scope to an individual aspect. These types include:
New Historicism
Attempts to show that literature impacts history and tends to focus on small elements, such as fashion.
Marxist
Focuses on literature in terms of its relationship to society at the time—usually by undermining the social structure.
Post-Colonial
Focuses on the role that literature played in the oppression and degradation of colonized people—sometimes also used in terms of racial and ethnic studies.
Racial and Ethnic Studies
Focuses specifically on the racial and ethnic aspects of the work and how they relate historically.
Gender Studies
Focuses specifically on the gender roles present in the text and how it relates to the historical norms.
While these subtypes do narrow the scope of your analysis down to a single aspect of its historical context, most pieces of literature are heavily impacted by several different elements from their time period. Therefore, you should be open to considering each historical aspect that may lead to a better understanding of the text. In most cases the best option is composing a general historical analysis, rather than limiting yourself by choosing a subtype.
What can you find in this section?
This Historical Analysis section includes a step-by-step walkthrough for creating your own historical analysis essay as well as specific examples for each step, following the composition of my essay, “Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘The Cry of the Children’ Falls on Deaf Ears of Corruption: A Historical Analysis.”
Steps:
Reading
Reading and Asking Questions
Researching
Making Connections
Planning a Thesis
Outlining
Drafting
Revising
Finalizing
Archived Process for Historical Analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children”
Note: A historical literary analysis requires more work than most analysis types. Between researching the history, making connections to the text, and backing up your thesis statement with historical evidence as well as textual evidence, it can be a big undertaking. Generally, historical analyses are more fitting for final projects where a larger and more thoroughly researched essay is called for; it may not be the right choice for a simple 4-5 page essay assignment.