1. Cracking the Mystery of History
The Historical Approach to Literary Criticism

2. Your Assignment Research the historical context of the chosen novel.
The following slides offer resources for you to begin your research.
As you read, take Cornell Notes on relevant historical information as it pertains to your novel. There are some hints to get you started.
When you’ve finished your research, compose a summary of your findings at the bottom of your Cornell Notes sheet.

3. Farewell to Manzanar http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/
relocation
order-9066

4. A Checklist of Historical and New Historicist Critical Questions
When was the work written? When was it published? How was it received by the critics and public? Why?
What does the work’s reception reveal about the standards of taste and value during the time period it was published and reviewed?
What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the action of the work were prevalent during the time the work was written and published?
What kinds of power relations does the work describe, reflect, embody?
How do the power relations reflected in the literary work manifest themselves in the cultural practices and social institutions prevalent during the timer the work was written and published?
What other types of historical documents, cultural artifacts, or social institutions might be analyzed in conjunction with particular literary works? How might close reading of such nonliterary “text” illuminate those literary works?
To what extent can we understand the past as it is reflected in the literary work? To what extent does the work reflect differences from the ideas and values of its time? (Di Yanni 1567).