Sociocultural context

• “Art is not created through a vacuum” - Wilbur Scott
• Literary theory

  • Different schools of thought, can be used as a tool to understand/analyze text
• Sociocultural

  • Combination of social and cultural factors
• Social order

  • System of social structures, enforce patterns of relations & behavior
• Ideology

  • Systematic body of concepts/beliefs about life or culture
• Chalice 

  • Cup used to hold wine
• • Reading using sociocultural context helps understand social, economic, political, and cultural forces affecting the work
• Questions to ask when reading

  • Relationship between the characters in the text and their society?
  • Does the text explicitly address issues of gender, race, class? How are they resolved?
  • Who has the power?
  • How does this story reflect the nation?
  • Who has the economic or social power? Is there class struggle? How is it overcome?
  • What is the prevailing social order? Is it accepted or challenged?
• Marxism

  • Literature shows class struggle and materialism
• Feminism

  • Examines the role of women
• Queer Theory

  • Concerned with the experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community
• Historicism

  • Dealing with the history that influenced the writing of literature
• Postcolonialism

  • Changes in society, culture, and attitudes in previous colonies, dependence/independence of decolonized people is examined
• New Historicism

  • How the history happened