BIOGRAPHICAL

CRITICISM

POETIC COMENTARY

At the end of 1960 and early 1970, we find a ‘proliferation of theories that stress the indefinite of any literary genre, social and cultural phenomena’. The poststructuralists and post-modernists were agreed about that it is impossible to make only one interpretation of the plays. The ‘Critical Approach’ was classified in two sides. The first one was dealt with Roman Jakobson and it was based on the scheme of communication to distinguish the literary theories. The second one was dealt with Wellek and Warren and according to it critical approaches are divided in two groups: Intrinsic (textual) approaches and Extrinsic (contextual) approaches. Extrinsic approaches concentrates on external causes of a play. They depend on non literary subjects like history, sociology…Inside of Extrinsic approaches there are a lot of critical approaches to literature like biography, structuralism, post-structuralism and deconstruction, formalism, feminist approach, etc. (ANA GARCIA)

I am going to concentrate on the ‘Biographical criticism’. The main idea of this method is that the play is the reflection of the personal circumstances of the author. Overcoat in poetry, poets are very subjective and they usually use their plays by way of confession to show, anyway, his interior world. The biography of an author can help us to interpret the play. One of the most representative authors that approached this theme was James Joyce, who turned his novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ in a reflection of his own autobiography. (ANA GARCIA)

According to Wellek and Warren, ‘The poem is an expression of the experience of the author.’ (Unchanged Meanings) This type of theory ‘takes two broad forms; in one the poem represents the intentions of the writer, in the other it reflects in some sense the totality of experience of the author, conscious and unconscious.’ (Rafe Champion)

Some critics agree with Wellek and Warren and believe ‘it is necessary to know about the author and the political, economical, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand his works.’ (Unchanged Meanings) One of them is Dr. Kristi Siegel who thinks that ‘autobiography was fertile ground for considering the divide between fact and fiction.’ (Introduction to Modern Literary Theory) It is also important to know the exact moment of the poet’s life in which he/she writes the poem to grasp the poet’s intention. Authors, in general terms, don’t write about the same themes during their youth, maturity or their old age because their scale of values is always changing.

On the other hand, ‘Biographical criticism’, as any of the literary theories, has its advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages: It is very useful to know the poet’s life to make a good and complete interpretation of a poem. Then, if the reader knows the poet’s life, he/she can understand better the themes, the expressions, the allusions, the structures, the metaphors, etc, that the poet uses in his/her poems. In other words, it is important to know the poet’s background and how it influenced his/her poetry. Depending on the poet’s life and his/her personal circumstances, he/she writes about certain themes. For example, Wilfred Owen lived in a difficult age affected by World War I and he started writing poems about feelings or situations as a soldier. Nevertheless, Seamus Heaney’s personal life was much more relaxed because he worked just as a poet. He really admired his family and his country (Ireland) and he concentrated his poetry on this two things.

‘It also is necessary to take a historical approach in order to place allusions in there proper classical, political, or biblical background.’ (Rafe Champion) According to Tammy and Betsy, the ‘Biographical Criticism’ is important because ‘A writer's life may shed light on his or her literature and the literature of the era.’ (Biographical Criticism)

Disadvantages: New Critics believe that ‘the meaning or value of a work may be determined by the author's intention as "the intentional fallacy."’ (Literary Criticism Study Guide) ‘We can fall down in the trap of which the author is using a mask. The biographical information can have suffered some transformation. Then, we cannot analyze the play exclusively from the author’s life as if it was about a cause-effect relationship. The biographical approach cannot be constituted in principal aim.’ (ANA GARCIA) ‘However, a biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer's life too far in criticizing the works of that writer: the biographical critic "focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author's life’ (Critical Approaches to Literature)

Tammy and Betsy also think that there are ‘mistakes to avoid when using this approach’. They recommend us two things when we are analyzing a play. On the one hand, ‘don't assume that the author's life is necessarily the same as the work's contents. On the other hand, ‘avoid using unsound sources of information about the author's life.’ (Biographical Criticism)

As Meyer, a literary critic says ‘Biographical information can sometimes complicate one’s interpretation of a work, and some formalist critics (such as the New Critics) disparage the use of the author’s biography as a tool for textual interpretation.’ (Literary Terms)

I have chosen this critical approach because throughout this course, I could have seen that all the poems that I have analyzed are determined by the author’s life. Sylvia Plath is one of the most representative poets as regards ‘Biographical criticism’ and ‘Feminist approach’. She wrote her poems based on her personal life and experience. She was one of the pioneers and most important women poets who were well-known socially. ‘Works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. But, until the mid-1970s, little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies.’ (Kristi Siegel) Plath’s father died when she was eight and she was a depressive person since then. Her poems are written from the perspective of a victim. She is the main character of her poems. She wrote about the loss of her father in ‘Daddy’. Moreover, she married Ted Hughes and he abandoned her for another woman. This fact increases her position as a victim. She wrote about her husband and her children in ‘Ariel’… ‘Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner.’ (The Academy) Furthermore, when she gave shape to her life in her poetry, she knew perfectly well that all people would feel sorry for her and would be against Ted Hughes. In this case she uses her personal life to become more popular and to create in society a feeling of rejection of Hughes. Maybe she lied or she exaggerated about their relationship and we believe that all that she said was true.

In conclusion, it is important to know the author’s life but we must be cautious and don’t believe that all he/she says about his/her life is true. The biography of an author can become an allied or a problem…

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- Introduction to Modern Literary Theory

Dr. Kristi Siegel

http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm#auto (20-5-06)

- Ana García Herráez ‘English Fiction from the 18^th Century’. Critical approaches Bibliography. Basic texts: Guerin, W.L et alli. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. OUP, 1992.; Pope, Rob. The English Studies Book. Routledge, 1998.; Selden , Raman, et alii. A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory. London: Prentice Hall, 1997.

- Biographical Criticism

Tammy and Betsy; Vimala C. Pasupathi (2000)

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~pasupathi/critical_tools/e314l_fall_2000/archives/special/lib2/Biographical_Criticism.html (22-5-06)

- Longman Anthology of Short Fiction Online Chapter 1 – BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM

http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/gioialasf_abl/chapter1/custom11/deluxe-content.html (22-5-06)

- Literary Criticism Study Guide

Skylar Hamilton Burris (1999)

http://www.literatureclassics.com/ancientpaths/litcrit.html#historical (22-5-06)

- Critical Approaches to Literature — Engl 200, Sec. 21/ Fall 1998

1998 by John B. Padgett

http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/200/litcrit.html (23-5-06)

- Literary Terms: A-C