Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel of Caloocan Inc.

Phase 10A Pkg 6 Blk 11 Lot 1-5 Bagong Silang, Caloocan City

Final Draft
For
Literary Criticism
“Biographical Theory”
Biographical Criticism

According to Dan Ichi Matsuyama, It defines as a critical approach to

literature in which information about an author’s life and background is used to
better understand his works, second writer's life may shed light on his or her literature
and the literature of the era and lastly, i t i s n e c e s s a r y t o k n o w a b o u t t h e
a u t h o r a n d t h e p o l i t i c a l , e c o n o m i c a l , a n d sociological context of his times to
truly understand his literature.

Origin of Biographical Criticism

As early as the nineteenth century, scholars considered literary texts against the
background of the author’s biography. The aim was to find references to the author’s
life, education, and socio-cultural environment in a literary work. Ever since the French
critic Roland Barthes announced the “death of the author” in 1968, the biographical
approach has lost its appeal for many scholars.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Biographical Criticism

Advantages:

 Works well or some which are political or biographical.

 It is also necessary to take a historical approach to place allusions in their proper
classical, political, or biblical background.

Disadvantages:

 “the intentional fallacy” tends to reduce art to the level of biography and make it
relative rather than universal.
 New critics refer to the historical/biographical critic’s belief that the meaning or
value of a work may be determined by the author’s intention as the “intentional
fallacy.

Critical questions to be asked in biographical criticism

 What aspects of the author’s personal life are relevant to his/her story?
 Which of the author’s stated beliefs are reflected in the work?
 Does the writer challenge or support the values of his/her contemporaries?
 What seems to be the author’s major concerns? Do they reflect any of the
writer’s personal experiences?
Literature analysis based on Biographical Criticism

Build a Fire by Jack London

The short story “To Build a Fire” is not the typical man versus man struggle. It is more of
a man versus nature, or in another perspective, a man versus himself struggle. It only
has two characters, a man and a dog, both traversing a snowy path towards a certain
place, despite knowing the inevitability of danger or even death itself. In the end, death
was sure for the man, as his struggle against himself and against nature ended
drastically.

The dog, following his instinct, went away towards safety. But the story is not only a
work of fiction. It is in itself, a combination of the writer’s imagination and his real life.
Jack London is one of those writers who lived a very colorful life. Jack London is not the
typical writer who wrote for pleasure in his pastime or has made a living out of writing.
London grew up without knowing his dad and eventually lived his life under the care of a
foster parent.

He worked manual labor in both land and sea, and when he finds free time, that’s when
he scribbles down his thoughts. London struggled against himself and his environment.
When the time came that he has to live by himself, he worked hard to sustain his needs.
It was like trying to create a fire in a vast land covered by snow so that you would
survive the night and would not freeze to death. He has to take care of everything to
survive.

As a man, Jack London grew up in a hostile environment full of snow which would kill
him anytime if he doesn’t take care of himself. The story “To Build a Fire” is not just the
work of imagination by Jack London. Somehow, it is affected by his outlook in life, as
well as his influences in life. All of his struggles against himself and his harsh
environment were reflected in the story. These struggles would make or break you. It
made Jack London, and it killed the man in the story.