Period: when was it written?
The period is the time in which a work was written. People of every period have their own worries, hopes, language and ways of life. A work from a time of rapid change may talk about change; a work from a time of struggle may speak about courage or loss.
Use the period like this: note the date, think about what was going on in daily life, and ask which parts of the work look like that time? Do not force it. If the text does not show it, do not claim it.
Also notice the form popular at that time (for example short songs, long epics, or letters). The form tells you what readers of that time liked to hear.
Author: who wrote it?
The author brings a life: place, work, beliefs, reading, joys and troubles. Knowing a few facts about the author can explain a choice, such as why a writer keeps returning to rivers or why a poet writes in simple speech.
Be careful with two traps. First, a narrator or a speaker in a poem is not always the author. Second, the author's life is a clue, not a proof. Your proof must still come from the words of the text.
Ask: what did this author write before? Does this work continue those ideas or break from them?
Influence of other works
Writers read before they write. A new work can borrow an older story, copy a form, answer an older work, or mock it. Spotting these links is called finding influences (or allusions).
- Same story retold: a new version of an old tale.
- Same form: a sonnet, a ballad, a diary style.
- A reply: a work that disagrees with an older one.
- A hidden nod: a name, a line or a symbol that points to an earlier work.
Influence moves forward in time: older works shape later works, never the other way. A good habit is to read the older work for a few minutes and then compare: what was kept, what was changed, and why?
Try it: take a story you know from childhood and a modern film based on it. Write two things kept and two things changed.
Key formulas and definitions
- Background = Period + Author + Influences
- Period = the time and events when the work was written
- Influence = an older work shaping a newer one (arrow goes forward in time)
- Clue vs proof: background is a clue; the text is the proof
Worked examples
1. A poem written in a time of long drought speaks again and again of clouds that do not come. How can the period help explain this?
The drought was part of daily life, so the writer's mind kept returning to clouds. The poem's waiting for rain can then be read as hope or worry of that time. Proof must still come from lines about clouds and waiting.
2. Can we say that a poem's speaker is always the poet?
No. The speaker may be an invented voice, like an actor playing a role. The poet's life can be a clue, but we should prove any claim from the text.
3. Work B retells a folk tale in a modern city. What was kept and what was changed?
Possible answer: kept the lesson and the three tests; changed the forest into a city street and the king into a company boss. These changes show how the later work adapts the older one to its own time.
4. A reader says a 1990 story was influenced by a 2010 novel. Is this possible?
No. Influence travels forward in time: only older works can influence newer ones. The reader may mean the stories are alike, which is a comparison, not an influence.
Common mistakes
- Saying the author's life explains every line. It is only a clue.
- Treating the speaker or narrator as the author.
- Claiming influence without any matching word, plot or form in both works.
- Placing a later work as an influence on an earlier one.