Biographical criticism
Biographical criticism is a form of literary criticism which analyzes a writer’s biography to show the relationship between the author’s life and their literary works. Biographical criticism is often associated with historical-biographical criticism, a critical method that “sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author’s life and times”.
This longstanding critical method dates back at least to the Renaissance period, and was employed extensively by Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Poets (1779–81).
Like any critical methodology, biographical criticism can be used with discretion and insight or employed as a superficial shortcut to understanding the literary work on its own terms through such strategies as Formalism. Hence 19th century biographical criticism came under disapproval by the so-called New Critics of the 1920s, who coined the term “biographical fallacy” to describe criticism that neglected the imaginative genesis of literature.
Notwithstanding this critique, biographical criticism remained a significant mode of literary inquiry throughout the 20th century, particularly in studies of Charles Dickens and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others. The method continues to be employed in the study of such authors as John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare.
Biographical criticism is a literary analysis approach that uses the author’s life, personal experiences, and historical context to understand their work’s themes, characters, and style. Critics examine details from the author’s background, like childhood, family, significant life changes, and social circumstances, to find connections and layers of meaning within the text. This method often involves researching an author’s life through their autobiographies, correspondence, and other primary materials.
How Biographical Criticism Works
Research the Author: Gather information about the author’s life, including their family, education, significant life events, beliefs, and the socio-historical context of their time.
Analyze the Text: Read the literary work closely, focusing on its characters, plot, themes, and literary elements.
Connect Life and Work: Look for connections between the author’s life experiences and the content of the literary piece, and how these may have influenced the work’s creation.
Formulate an Interpretation: Based on these connections, develop an interpretation of the text, considering the author’s possible intent and the impact of their personal history.
What It Aims to Understand
Influence of Life Events: How specific events, relationships, or struggles in the author’s life might have shaped the story or poem.
Authorial Intent: What the writer may have sought to accomplish through their writing, based on their personal background and perspective.
Contextual Meaning: How the author’s beliefs and the social, economic, and political climate of their time might have informed the work.
Example of Application
To analyze Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” a biographical critic would research her life as one of America’s first Black women poets, including her experiences with slavery and her religious beliefs. This information would then be used to interpret the poem’s themes of freedom and democracy, understanding how her life experiences shaped her use of imagery and metaphor.