Lesson 6 (Week 9) - Literary, Biographical, Linguistic, and

Sociocultural Contexts

Subject 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World
Grade Level Grade 12
Week No. Week 9

Main Topic: Literary, biographical, linguistic, and sociocultural contexts

Subtopics:
 Context of literary work
o Historical context
o Literary context
o Biographical context
o Linguistic Context
o Socio-cultural context
 Perspectives in Socio-Cultural Context
o Marxism
o Feminism
o Queer Theory
o Postcolonialism
o New Historicism

Learning Objectives:
 Identify the different ways one may evaluate a literary text, specifically by examining its biographical context,
sociocultural context, and linguistic context.
 Distinguish various critical reading strategies; and
 Analyze different literary texts through different contexts using different critical reading strategies
Introduction
In every literary work, there is an existing theme that inspired or motivated the writer to create his/her work.
Which is why it is important to understand not only the characters, the setting, or even the best parts of a literary
work, but also its context.
In other words, context is all about providing a clear background or picture of the situation or the person who are
involved. We have to give importance to it since it helps us to be closer to the story. We can understand and be more
critical in the aspect of the purpose of the author’s story. If we observe that there are loopholes to the context of the
literary work that we are reading, then we might become confused of the true meaning of the literary work. In short,
context help you, your classmates, and even your teachers to understand the cultural, political, and philosophical
background of literary works.

Pretest Activity – They say that picture speaks a thousand words. Can you express what you think is happening in
each picture? What kind of situation or movement do you perceive is going on in the following pictures? Observe and
analyse the following pictures and write your answers in 2-3 sentences in the space provided.

1.

2.
 3.

4.

Are you done answering the pretest activity? Remember the

quotation that I mentioned in the directions that each picture
can give several meanings or perspectives to each of you.
Hence, it is important that you first analysed and answered it
as honestly as possible since we are just trying to observe our
perspectives in those pictures
Discussion
In the introduction, we have discussed the importance of context in literary works. It is also important to know that
context is not limited on hidden themes or symbols that can be found in novels, poems, or short stories. Rather, we
have to understand the fact that each author and their literary works are products of its time-- whether they have
experience it or have seen the trend around the issue. Every piece of writing is approached and analyzed by us with
our own set of experiences and perceptions.

Main Context of literary work

1) Historical context

Literary works that often respond to historical events. The following essential questions usually float to the message
or theme of the author.
 What specific historical events were happening when the work was being composed?
 What historical events does this work deal with?
 In what ways these historical events influenced the perspective of the writer when he/she was creating it.

2) Literary context

It relates to the particular form and to the specific words, sentences, or paragraphs that involve the content that you
are reading. When we read a literary work, we can simply observe of the possible context and its supporting details
on what the literary context focuses on.

3) Biographical context

Perhaps in your language classes, you have been tasked by your teachers to read a short biography of the author
before proceeding to their works. The reason for this is that the daily or past experiences of the author might have a
significant factor in the way he/she created their works. We can compare it to the two famous novels of Jose Rizal or
even to the diary of Anne Frank.

There are techniques that you can adapt when reading or using biographical context:
 Research on what the author believes in and what he or she does not.
  Analyze how the author’s belief system is reflected in his or her work.
 Look at the author’s other works and analyze if there is a pattern with regard to the theme that is
indicative of his or her and beliefs.

4) Linguistic Context

According to David Richter, “Practically, everything we do that is specifically human is expressed in language.” Which
is why that all us can read and understand literary works through the context of language. When observing and using
this context, one should focus on how language has been utilized in literary works and how its creators utilized
various rules of language when presenting the meaning of their works.

Here are some possibilities should we read literature through the perspective of linguistic context:
 Reading the text on its own, regardless of the author’s biography and socio-cultural context may help you
understand the literary text through analysis of words, sentences, patterns to name few of the text.
 Analysis of the literary texts, grammar, syntax, or phonemic pattern may help you find the meaning of the text
within its form and help you interpret it by simply analyzing the context of the literary work.

In addition, there are also some techniques we can use when reading a text through the linguistic context.

 Analyze the diction or choice of words in the text.

 Examine the texts’ syntax or use of sentences, clauses, phrases, line cuts, etc.
 Observe the text’s overall structure
 Analyze the content of the text.

5) Socio-cultural context

If we are going to read using the sociocultural context, you will examine the different variables that may affect the
content or theme of the literary work. It will also affect how the literary work will be perceived by the readers during
the time when it was written or published.
Perhaps you have reasons to read literary works through sociocultural context such as when:
 Reading using the socio-cultural context helps you understand the socio-political and cultural forces that are
affecting the literature that you are reading
 When you analyze the sociocultural context of the work, it makes you examine the role of the audience (which
 is you, the reader) in shaping literature.

However, due to the fact this type context is far more comprehensive than others, there are other notable perspective
that can be connected to the socio-cultural context.
Among these include:

Notable Perspectives in Socio-Cultural Context

1. Marxism

This type of perspective describes the class struggle among different social classes in the society. It portrays the
oppression, social injustice, and poverty that are being experienced by the workers or the lower classes in which
Marxists would blame the capitalists or the elite class of the society as the reason for such inequality.
2. Feminism

This literary perspective recognizes and reflects stereotypes and other cultural assumptions of the society about
women. This perspective examines the role of the women in the literature. It investigates how the female character
may be empowered or discriminated against.

3. Queer Theory

A type of literary perspective that was first mentioned around 1980s and 1990s where it emerged from a combination
of post-structuralist understanding of gendered and sexual identities which includes gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgender political activism of that decade. This perspective focuses on the third gender or what we called today as
members of the LGBTQ group.

4. Postcolonialism

This type of literary perspective can be described when people who were formerly colonized by European countries
tried to read and examine their countries’ past colonial experiences through literature. Most of the time, the writers
who tried to use this type of perspective tend to portray their anti-colonial bias since their writing tend to reflect the
nationalism and bad experiences of their countrymen such as in the case of portrayal of nationalist writers to the
Spanish and American colonial periods.

5. New Historicism
It a literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted within the context of both the
history of the author and the history of the critic. As we try to read this type of context, we will not only observe or
analyze on what event or year the book was written but rather we also examine on how these events occurred and
the reasons behind those events.

Public Service Announcement

When we read these types of literary work that features different sociocultural perspective, you should try to put aside
your personal bias, your personal experience or even your religious or political ideologies. Since as a reader, we
should examine it first and try look at the lens of the writer as to why he portrayed his/her characters and why did the
writer use that type of context.

Afterall, our personal biases might inflame our emotions against reason, and we would immediately commit
prejudices to the literary work.

Reading Comprehension #1 – In examining various literary contexts and perspective, we are going to read through
the Marxist perspective type of literary work and in relation to this, you are tasked to read the work of Manuel E.
Arguilla’s ‘Rice’.

Read and analyze this short story that can be found in the flash drive or in the files of our Teams Group. Please read
and analyze it first before answering the following questions in 3-4 sentences. (This short story that can be found in
the flash drive or in the files of our Teams Group.) Write your sentences in English. Observe proper grammar and
sentence construction.

1. Why are the tenants furious with the new announcement from the Señora? What was the issue and was it
justified?

2. What was the plan of Andres and why is Pablo hesitant to join him?
3. Do you think that the decision of Pablo was right at the end of the story or is he making a mistake? Explain your
answer.

Posttest: Reading Comprehension #2 – For our next reading selection, we will try to examine a literary work in the
Feminist context. You are tasked to read the poem ‘Ang Babaeng Nangarap nang Gising’ which was composed by
the National Artist for Literature, Virgilio Almario.

Read and analyze the poem which can be found in the flash drive or in the files of our Teams Group. Please read
and analyze it first before answering the following questions in 3-4 sentences. (This short story that can be found in
the flash drive or in the files of our Teams Group.)

1. Ano sa tingin mo ang kalagayan ng babae sa tula na nabanggit?

2. Sa tingin mo ba ang babae na binabanggit sa tula ay pasuko na o patuloy pa rin sa paglaban? Ipaliwanag ng
mabuti ang sagot?

3. Kung pag-uusapan natin ang konteksto sa tula ng pag-aaway ng dalawang mag-asawa, sa tingin mo ba na dapat
ipasa na bilang isa batas ang “Divorce Bill”?