Interpreting Literature in Context

Just enough theory to use it

The competence aim is precise: 'interpret and discuss some types of literary texts in English in the light of their historical and cultural contexts'. That means two operations working together. Interpretation: close reading of the text's own machinery – narrator and point of view, characterisation, setting, imagery, symbols, tone – building towards a claim about theme (what the text explores, stated as a sentence, not a word). Contextualisation: placing the text in its moment – the beliefs, conflicts and conventions it answers – so the reading deepens: 'Frankenstein' sharpens against Romantic-era science anxieties; Kipling's 'Lispeth' against empire's civilising claims; Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour' against nineteenth-century marriage law; Gothic conventions against Victorian repressions. Know the rough period map (Renaissance/Shakespeare, Romanticism, Victorian realism and Gothic, Modernism, post-colonial and contemporary writing) as orientation, not as boxes. The discussion half of the aim invites the second context: OUR reading moment – why 'Jane Eyre' reads differently after feminism, why post-colonial eyes re-read the canon (Achebe answering Conrad). Method rules you know from Norwegian apply in English: claims anchored in quotation, devices tied to function, context that ILLUMINATES the reading rather than replacing it.

Need more theory? See resources for this topic →

Click a term to see it used in a sentence, not just as a definition.