Contexts in Literature

When reading a text, we must take into consideration two types of contexts:

Context of production: This one is the context that surrounded the author at the time that he wrote the text. If the author wrote a text in 1396, the context of production would be all the historical facts that were ocurring during those times.

Context of reception: This context belongs to the reader. If I read a book, no matter when it was written, the context of reception is all the things that surrounded my enviorment at the moment of reading the book. So if I read a text from 1396, the context of reception would be the things that are happening in 2012, the time when I read the text.