LITERARY READING

THROUGH THE
DIFFERENT CONTEXT
LINGUISTIC CONTEXT
In communication and composition, context refers to
the words and sentences that surround any part of
a discourse and that help to determine its meaning.
BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
 A biographical context refers to the author’s life and
the factors that influenced and shaped it, such as
social, political, and economic conditions during his
or her time.
This also includes his or her educational background,
religion, ethnicity, among others.
When you read based on a biographical context, you
employ a biographical criticism.
BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
In analyzing a text based on its biographical context,
you should consider not only how the factors
mentioned earlier have caused an impact to the
author, but also how these factors were reflected in,
and have helped shape, his or her work(s).
BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
It is important to take into consideration the
literary background of the author. You must
research about who and which the author reads
as these may have also influenced him or her
and his or her work(s).
EXAMPLE:
Manuel E. Arguilla’s “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” is
a story told through Baldo’s, Leon’s brother, point of view. He
narrated how Leon brought his soon-to-be wife, Maria, in their
hometown (Nagrebcan, La Union) to meet his family. To analyze this
story, let us first consider some facts about Arguilla:
 Arguilla was born on June 17, 1911 in Bauang, La Union to Crisanto
Arguilla and Margarita Estabillo.
 He was the fourth child and his family owned a small piece of land
in their town.
 He was married to Lydia Villanueva, who was from Ermita, Manila.
BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT
 Reading through a biographical context entails that readers
understand the text better upon learning about the author’s
life.
 Keep in mind that even when engaging in a biographical
criticism, your interpretation must still come from how the
text made an impact on you.
 Analyzing a text based on the biographical context adds
substance to that “impact” and does not distort it.
LINGUISTIC CONTEXT
The English Language Situation during the American Colonial
Period (1898–1945)
- 1901, public education of Americans
- Exposed Filipino writers to Anglo-American literature, culture, and
ways of looking at the world.
◦ Development of a new body of literature took place.
◦ The period of apprenticeship (1910–1935) was characterized by writers
imitating Western writers.
◦ The succeeding “period of emergence” (1935–1945) saw writers gaining
full command of English and finally giving shape to what is now the
Philippine Literature in English.
 EXAMPLE 1:
Dead Stars (An Excerpt)
By Paz Marquez-Benitez
Under straight recalcitrant hair, a thin face with a satisfying
breadth of forehead, slow, dreamer's eyes, and astonishing
freshness of lips--indeed Alfredo Salazar's appearance
betokened little of exuberant masculinity; rather a poet with
wayward humor, a fastidious artist with keen, clear brain.
EXPLANATION:
 “Dead Stars” (1925) by Paz Marquez-Benitez is considered as
the first modern Philippine short story in English for its maturity
in subject and language.
 The prose is rich, a characteristic found in Western literature,
which is often verbose and elaborate.
It uses deep words and figures of speech (e.g., “recalcitrant
hair”).
The sentence is quite long; the author plays with the language,
creating a more vivid characterization of Alfredo.
 How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife (An Excerpt)
By Manuel E. Arguilla
She stepped down from the carretela of Ca Celin with a quick, delicate
grace. She was lovely. She was tall. She looked up to my brother with a
smile, and her forehead was on a level with his mouth.
"You are Baldo," she said and placed her hand lightly on my shoulder. Her
nails were long, but they were not painted. She was fragrant like a
morning when papayas are in bloom. And a small dimple appeared
momently high on her right cheek. "And this is Labang of whom I have
heard so much." She held the wrist of one hand with the other and looked
at Labang, and Labang never stopped chewing his cud. He swallowed and
brought up to his mouth more cud and the sound of his insides was like a
drum.
Explanation:
 In “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” (1941), Arguilla
writes in a simple and very fluid language, which is easy for the
readers to follow.
He used simple figures of speech (e.g., “fragrant like a morning
when papayas are in bloom”).
He also used borrowed Spanish words to express meanings more
accurately.
he used “carretela of Ca Celin” instead of “Mr. Celine’s carriage.”
It places the story in a rural setting and gives it a distinct native
quality.
LITERARY READING THROUGH
A SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT
SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT
Sociocultural context refers to the intersection of the social
and cultural events of a certain time period that inform
various phenomena such as art and political dealings.

refers to the idea that language, rather than existing in

isolation, is closely linked to the culture and society in
which it is used.
When analyzing a literary work, one must analyze the
socio-cultural context that is used to produce a clearer
picture and understanding of the literature.

oYou create a picture of the event that is taking place

oYou create an image of the physical and social setting the character
in the story lives in
oGain an understanding why the characters act the way they do.
In order to understand literary context,
one must:
“relate texts to their social, cultural and historical
contexts and literary traditions”
The ‘social, historical and cultural’ contexts can
consist of a variety of factors.
Here are some things you could consider
in placing a text in ‘context’:
the life or biography of the poet
other works that the poet has written
the historical period in which that poem was written
the place or event that gave rise to the poem
the ways in which the language used in the poem reflects the period in
which it was written
the particular culture within which the poem was written
the social background of the poet or the theme or setting of the poem
Bienvenido Santos (1911–1996)
became an exile twice. In 1941, he was studying in the US on government
scholarship when the Japanese attacked Manila in December; he was cut
off from his family. During that time, he wrote stories that later on
appeared in his short story collections You, Lovely People (1955), The Day
the Dancers Came (1967), and Scent of Apples (1979). He was only able to
return to the country in February 1946. Then in 1972, he was with his wife
Beatriz in San Francisco when President Ferdinand Marcos declared
martial law. His novel The Praying Man (1982), which is about the political
corruption of the government, was banned by the government. From
1973 to 1982, he was a writer-in-residence at Wichita State University. In
1976, he became a US citizen. He returned to the Philippines for a visit in
1981.
 “Immigration Blues”
Example 1: by Bienvenido Santos
Immigration Blues” tells the story of Alipio Palma, a Filipino old-timer and
“

a naturalized American citizen. A widower, he lived alone in an apartment

in San Francisco. One day during the summertime, two women came to
his home. The women were Antonietta Zafra and her sister Monica.
Antonietta introduced herself to Alipio as the wife of Carlito. At the
mention of the name of his old buddy, Alipio became familiar. In their
conversation, he talked about his late wife Seniang. One of his fond
memories of her is when he came home to see her wearing his jacket and
slippers. Also, she went to see him in his apartment and asked him without
hesitation to marry her. She had to marry an American citizen like Alipio at
that time so that she could stay in the country. In return, she would take
care of him. At first, Alipio was not interested. Eventually, he agreed to
marry her. By doing so, he thought that he would become more sensible
with his time and money and that he would be happier, and he would live
longer.
For the same reason as Alipio’s late wife, Antonietta and her sister
Monica came to see Alipio. At first, it was only Antonietta who was
working on Alipio for Monica. She was dropping hints during their
conversation. The most obvious one was when Alipio was telling the
two women how he and Carlito had impressed women before with
their gallantry and that they were “fools on fire.” Antonietta
responded with less subtlety by saying, “I’m sure you still got some of
that fire.” From that moment, Monica took her turn to work on Alipio
herself. The story ends with Antonietta leaving Alipio and Monica
alone to go to a nearby grocery store for their dinner.
In 1977, the short story won the best fiction award given by New
Letters magazine. In 1980, it was included in Scent of Apples,
published by the University of Washington Press. The next year,
Santos won the American Book Award for that collection from Before
Columbus Foundation.
Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez (1915–1999),
simply known as “N. V. M.,” became a Rockefeller Foundation fellow
in 1948 and attended Stanford University in California and Columbia
University in New York City. In 1950, he returned to the country and
began his teaching career. Then he went back to California in the
1960s to teach and stayed there until 1983. Despite those travels,
though, he never gave up his citizenship. Throughout his teaching
career, he produced fourteen books, including the short story
collections Children of the Ash-Covered Loam (1954) and The Bread
of Salt and Other Stories (1993). He received many awards for his
achievements including the National Artist of Literature in 1997.
 “The Tomato Game”
Example 2: by N. V. M. Gonzalez
“The Tomato Game” is written in an epistolary style. The narrator, a lecturer at a
university called Transpacifica University in the US, is writing to a man named
Greg. In the letter, he tells about a colleague named Sophio Arimuhanan, whom
he refers to as Sopi, and his modus operandi. Sopi calls himself “Importer-
Exporter of Brides,” that is, he makes arrangements for people who wanted to
get married. He is called “Attorney,” but he is not legally allowed to practice law.
One Sunday in the summertime, the narrator and Sopi went to a tomato farm. At
first the narrator thought they were going to watch a cockfight, but he soon
found out that they were meeting an old man whom Sopi referred to as “Lolo.”
This old man was arranged by Sopi to marry a young Filipina named Alice. In
their arrangement, the old man would take Alice as his wife and some
young man named Tony as his nephew. Then the old man would send Tony to
school. Hearing about the arrangement made the narrator angry. Later on,
when the narrator realized his role in Sopi’s scheme, he felt terrible. As hinted by
Sopi, he would need the narrator’s help as he was a lecturer at Transpacifica.
The old man had already paid eight hundred dollars for Tony’s tuition in
advance. Towards the end of the letter, the narrator tells Greg what Sopi said to
him when they left the farm. Sopi said, “To think that that old man hasn’t even
met the boy.”
 In 1972, the short story “The Tomato Game” won the first prize in the Carlos Palanca Memorial
Awards for Literature. In 1993, the short story was published along with other works in the
collection The Bread of Salt and Other Stories.
Bienvenido Santos and N. V. M. Gonzalez presented
different facets of the Filipino immigrant experience.
 In “Immigrant Blues,” Santos portrayed a lonely old-timer
who wanted a companion and a woman who chose to
marry an old-timer out to avoid deportation.
In “The Tomato Game,” Gonzalez portrayed Filipinos trying
to make it in the US. One is a lecturer who regrets to be part
of a scheme that deceives an unsuspecting old man, while
another, an unlicensed lawyer, deceives people for a living.
“Society and culture strongly influence a writer’s work. To
understand the text better then, identify its sociocultural
context.”
CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES IN
LITERATURE
Critical Reading
Critical reading has an academic or professional purpose.
Unlike reading for pleasure, it requires critical thinking skills
like doing analysis, developing an argument, and doing an
evaluation.
Critical reading strategies in literature vary in purpose and
focus.
CONTEXTUALIZING
Contextualizing a text is considering the time and place in which the
text was produced.
A reader can read about the writer’s life to see how his or her
experiences shape the writing.
Also, a reader can examine how a text reflects the society or culture.
Lastly, a reader can consider the significant events in history that
influence the text.
Example:
Again, consider the book Tales from the Jazz Age by F.
Scott Fitzgerald. As the title suggests, the stories in
the collection were written during the Jazz Age. A
reader may consider the society or culture in that
period of time in reading the stories.
Asking Questions
 Asking questions about a text allows one to understand
and remember the content of a piece of literature.
 A reader asks questions about the main ideas or literary
elements; and such questions are answered in his or her
own words.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. Who are the main characters in the short
story?
2. What is the plot of the short story?
3. What is the conflict?
4. What are the theme, motifs, and symbols
used by the writer?
REFLECTING
 Reflecting on a text involves examination of
the reader’s personal responses to the text.
The reader relates the new learning to his or
her previous learning as well as to his or her
own beliefs.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Have you had experiences similar to that of the character
of the story?
2. What feelings did you have as you read the story?
3. Which character do you feel a connection with and why?
4. Is there any part of the story that you find difficult to
understand?
5. How did the story change your way of thinking?
MAKING AN OUTLINE AND A
SUMMARY
 Making an outline and a summary of a text involves
identifying its important ideas.
 An outline is a list of the main ideas and supporting
ideas of the text, while a summary is a brief
statement of the most important information of the
text.
EVALUATING THE ARGUMENT
 Evaluating the argument made in a text involves assessing
the validity of its claim and support.
 A reader examines the main idea, opinion, or point of view
of the writer if it is well supported by enough credible
evidence or proof.
MAKING A COMPARISON AND
CONTRAST OF RELATED TEXTS
Making a comparison and contrast of related texts is the
strategy of identifying the similarities and differences
between texts of similar issue or approach.
Critical reading requires different critical thinking
skills. In reading a piece of literature critically, you can
preview it, contextualize it, ask questions about it,
reflect on it, make an outline of its ideas and a
summary, evaluate its argument, or compare and
contrast it with another text.