Cultural

As one of the core concepts, as well as a motif that runs throughout the course - and indeed the Diploma Program in general, it is important to interrogate the meaning of the term 'culture' and the various ways in which it presents itself in the works chosen for study. One problem, of course, is that the word eludes any kind of precise definition. However,  broadly speaking it might be said to describe the practices, customs and values shared by a particular group of people at a particular time.  And these are factors that inform the context/s in which the work is written, as well as affect the ways in which it is read - sometimes by readers in very different places and times.  

Literary

Whether consciously or not, all writers - and indeed all artists - create works of art in relation to what has gone before, with knowledge or at least sensitivity to what has preceded them.   Sometimes overlooked as part of the ways in which 'context' is defined, but of course nonetheless important - the literary context of a particular work can therefore affect significantly the way in which its meaning is generated.  We cannot really claim to 'understand' poets such as Wordsworth, Shelley or Keats, for example, without reference to the characteristics of 19th century Romanticism.

Biographical

The biographical circumstances of individual writers (and of course readers) can sometimes make a difference to the way in which works are read and understood.  Such an avenue does not of course come without controversy, however. On the one hand it might make sense to take specific 'real life' situations of this kind into account as a way to locate meaning and intention in literary works, but on the other such practices can encourage misleading, speculative readings  - as well as run counter to the notion espoused by T S Eliot when he says of poetry:  [It] is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.  

Historical

Many works of art can be seen to engage either directly or indirectly with the historical circumstances in which they are written. These circumstances are more often than not political ones with which a work may engage realistically - or in a more figurative, symbolic capacity. Consider, for example, the importance of the McCarthy trials to the writing of 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, the Gunpowder Plot to the dramatic power of 'Macbeth' or the allegorical presence of the Russian Revolution in Orwell's 'Animal Farm'.  We might also consider historical context in a wider sense to embrace such things as scientific or technological developments;  'Frankenstein', for instance, is a novel that speaks directly to the scientific revolution and 19th Century 'enlightened' thinking.   

Philosophical

Although closely connected to the above, there is nonetheless sometimes separate benefit to be gained from interrogation of the values and beliefs that inform particular times and places inside literary works, as as well as 'outside' them in particular paradigms held by the reader or the social context in which he or she exists.  The former is of course fixed, whereas the latter will change with time. Fundamentally, at this level, we are exploring the ways in which individual characters or the work as a whole look for, or find, meaning in their lives. Such consideration might address interpretation of morality and ethics, free will and destiny, love, friendship or responsibility  - indeed anything to which notions of meaning might be attached.