Knowra Historical criticism Historical criticism Historical criticism interprets literary works in relation to the political, social, intellectual, and material conditions in which they were produced.
New historicism : A literary approach that reads texts alongside the cultural practices and power relations of their period. It treats literary works and historical documents as mutually shaping, rather than using context mainly to explain a text.
Historiography : The study of how history is written, interpreted, and shaped by evidence and perspective. Historical criticism depends on accounts of the past that are themselves interpretive.
Philology : The historical study of language and texts through their forms, transmission, and relations. Historical criticism inherited philology’s attention to linguistic change and documentary evidence.
The Canterbury Tales : Geoffrey Chaucer’s unfinished collection of stories framed as a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Its speakers and social tensions invite analysis against late medieval institutions and estates.
Formalism : An approach that analyzes literary form and structure as primary sources of meaning. It prioritizes textual organization over the conditions of a work’s production.
Source criticism : The study of sources, influences, and borrowed material used in a work. Tracing a work’s sources can reveal the historical ideas and texts available to its author.
Archival research : The use of records preserved in archives to investigate the past. Letters, legal documents, and records can supply evidence beyond the published text.
Leopold von Ranke : A nineteenth-century German historian associated with rigorous use of archival sources. His model of source-based history helped establish standards for historical scholarship.
The Federalist Papers : A series of essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay advocating ratification of the United States Constitution. Their arguments can be read alongside the political disputes of the 1780s.
Structuralism : An approach that studies meaning through systems of signs and underlying structures. It shifts attention from a work’s particular historical moment to broader systems.
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