"When the historian investigates the question whether the figure of Shylock in THe Merchant of Venice represents an antiemetic view, he regards the question as hardly distinguishable from a question about what Shakespeare and his first audience would have thought of Shylock"
I really like this quote, and I honestly think this opinion is true. Thinking back on my other english classes of the past, the class has almost always looked at that piece of literature in the ways and traditions of today. I realize how wrong that is, you can't compare the Elizabethian times with today.
I'm starting to think that it may be more important to look at the time period, the history surrounding the author opposed to the biography. We should understand the history, not because we want to know if it influenced the author, but because we want to understand we are reading in a better way. The author's life is important, but history is even more so.
As a side-effect of being so "into" literature and art, I've learned so much about history that it amazes me sometimes. I never -tried- to learn history... it just happened. When I consider a piece of literature, I think I've been trained to look at the time in which it was written without a second thought. (Is that a form of brainwashing? haha)
Posted by: Karissa at February 11, 2007 7:51 PM