blogs re: MA language and literacy program-how to teach reading and writing
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
literary imagination
In general mixing disciplines is a great way to bring new isight and interpretations to fiction. History especially, which is about life, can help stimulate the imagination about a story's situational events or its characters. I'm not saying that a work of fiction can't stand alone as a work of art, but history can provide richer layers and meaning. Sometimes the historical context in which a story is embedded is obvious but not always. Another interesting observation, is that fiction comes from life... and no matter when or where, basic human needs and desires never really change.
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Who is arguing against this? Having background historical information when analyzing literary works is certainly one of the most helpful tools to effectively glean meaning from what has been read.
ReplyDeleteNo discipline is insulated. There is always a way to gain a better sense of the subject by contextualizing information.
Sure we can read works and focus exclusively on textual analysis but ultimately if we want a fuller sense of the work we need to look outside of the text. The author has certain sensibilities that are a product partly of the time during which he wrote. If we look at the various disciplines that were at that time and how the shaped his thinking, we can gain a better sense of the work.