Time After Time, Part 1
So how do you think people know about cultures, politics, societies and events of the past? Are there people locked away who are tasked with recording every detail of the practices and events of each society? Is there some secret society that metes out the knowledge just for the kids sitting in history classes?
That would be kind of cool, but the truth is that we know about culture and history because of the art and literature that people from the past created. Just because we are human, we are compelled to build and create, and so we carry our memories, values, experience, and history into those creations. Think of literature as a train speeding off into the future. The baggage car is full of little tidbits or hints about the people who built the train and rode it. As active, involved readers, we have the keys to those bags, and we can unlock those tidbits to learn about history. This unlocking history by analyzing literature is called Historical Criticism.
