Period and author
The period is the time in which a work was written. It tells you about customs, beliefs, language and what readers expected. The author is the writer. Knowing their life, job (court servant, monk, traveller, scholar) and place tells you why they wrote and what they noticed.
Ask: When? Who? For whom? Why?
Links to other works
Works are rarely alone. A later writer may borrow a scene, answer a poem with a poem, retell a tale in a new way, or quote a line. This is called a link between works.
Spotting a link helps you see what is old and what is new in a text. For example, if a later poem uses the same moon image as an older one, ask how the feeling has changed.
Using background while reading
Check the background after a first read, not before. Then read again and see what changes. A footnote saying "this scene is from an earlier tale" can open the whole meaning of a line.
Try it
Choose a film, song or story you know that is based on an older one. Write: the older work, the new work, and one thing that is borrowed and one that is changed. Then switch the three layers in the 3D to see the same web.
Key formulas and definitions
- PAL = Period + Author + Links
- Link = borrowing a scene, theme or line
- Arrow points from the later work to its source
Worked examples
1. A film is based on an ancient epic. Name the link and the source.
The film links to the epic. The epic is the source, so the arrow points to it.
2. A poem written 500 years after a tale uses the same moon scene. What helps you compare them?
The period and the link. The time gap explains the changed feelings.
3. You read that the author was a court servant. What does that tell you?
It may explain the ranks, manners and subjects in the text, like court life.
Common mistakes
- Judging an old work by today's world without checking its period.
- Assuming the author and the narrator are always the same person.
- Thinking links mean copying. Writers change what they borrow.
- Pointing the link arrow the wrong way: later work to source.