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Baocheng Hao
Colt 360
Midterm Essay
Does historical context help or hinder us as readers?
While many people may argue that historical context has an impact on the perception of a
reader towards any text, it is clear that a number of factors come into play when making a
concussion as to whether such contest may hinder a reader. Whichever the case, historical
context in many cases tend to have a factual account of the events that took place with accurate
evidence and account of all the incidences. On the other hand, the text provided may represent
the interpretation of the author and the opinion the author bears in respect to a particular text.
Based on the source reading, it can be argued that historical context may help a reader to
contextualize, visualize, and interpret a text.
Context can be defined as the background information that surrounds a subject. Historical
context refers to the events that occur at the time a text is penned. There is a direct connection
between a literature piece and its historical context. Generally, authors try as much as they can to
reflect the time period they live in and the ideas of their time in their literary work. As a piece of
art, stories are colored by the author’s time period which also shapes the way that the reader
views the past. Without historical context, characters, memories, and stories are denied their
meaning and relevance. The economic, political and social conditions which exist at the time a
literary piece is written make up its historical context. In understanding a text’s historical
context, readers get to understand the motivations behind certain behaviors exhibited by the
characters.
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In his article "Commentary on an Excerpt from "A Country Doctor", Baker (34), was
explicit on the impact of a historical context obtained from a country to the understanding of a
reader on what Kafka(150), referred to as "A Country Doctor" in his earlier book. This reading
draws an insight into the help a reader can get from the historical context of the actual events that
took place before the text was written. In particular, the reading provided an overview of how the
subsequent text was adapted from events that took place in the real world. Even though
Baker(154), fails to give an illustration of the perception of humanity in respect to historical
context the reference to the article as a commentary on an excerpt obtained from the article by
Kafka is an indicator of the significance of a historical context to a reader.
There are a number of reasons why readers need to take historical context into account
when reading texts that engage the absurd. Foremost, historical context is useful for the accurate
interpretation of speech and behavior of characters. For instance, in Kafka’s A Country Doctor,
there is the statement, ‘I’m not coming with you anyway, I’m staying with Rose’ (Kafka 150).
Outwardly, one thinks that the person saying these statements has some close relationship with
Rose. However, they are total strangers to each other, and his intention is to harm her sexually. It
is noteworthy that texts which engage the absurd exhibit a singularly masculine phenomenon
which is evident in Kafka’s text. Authors of texts which engage the absurd are male as are a
majority of their characters. In this case, both the writer and the narrator are male. Additionally,
the story by Baker(65), comes out as a masculine fantasy involving sexual violence against a
female character which is a major concern. Historical context, therefore, helps the reader to
decipher what the author might not directly refer to in the plain text.
Secondly, there is no way that the reader can sensibly engage a text on absurdity without
considering the historical context. It is this consideration that helps one to fully understand and
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appreciate the literature. When considering this literature, there are a number of things that, with
regards to contemporary settings, appear offensive and insensible. However, one can only
understand why they occur with an understanding of the historical context in mind. In Kafka’s
book, there is the portrayal of the female character Rosa as being sexually available and sexually
violated. Considering the centrality of feminism in the contemporary literary sphere, this might
not be entertained. However, with an understanding of the historical context of the text, one gets
to understand that it is a reflection of society then and how the female was regarded.
Historical context broadens the reader’s view rather than limiting them to a snippet of the
scene which would subsequently hinder their understanding of what motivates the author to
choose certain characters, settings, and interactions between the characters. While arriving at the
home of his patient, the doctor finds a child who is in rather good health, and who begs to die.
This has been clearly illustrated in Baker(51), that may present accounts are based on historical
contexts. Perhaps this is why the doctor's mind is preoccupied with the plight of Rosa until he
discovers a wound in his patient, which has worms. There is not only a correlation between the
patient’s wound and Rosa’s unfortunate sexual molestation but the communication of how
absurdity is presented.
Kafka (152), clearly illustrates that the experience of “A Country Doctor is a narration of
a historical fact that can be related to what the present society is facing. In this text, the doctor
recounts how he is stripped naked. In fact, he is saddened by the fact that the community has lost
its ancient beliefs which probably enabled them to care for the sick, and instead look up only to
the doctor as the source of hope (Kafka 153). This is also extended to the helplessness that the
lady, Rosa, is left in when the old man charges towards her. Understanding how these things can
possibly occur requires an understanding of the historical context of the text. Thus, it is with no
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doubt that historical context from which a text is derived will help readers have a deeper
understanding of whatever text they are reading so as to read the text with the objectivity of
learning more from the text.
Aside from the important role that historical context plays in the reader’s understanding
of texts that engage the absurd, it is worth pointing out that the same historical context tries to
separate us from the occurrences in the text. For instance, taking an illustration from Baker(53),
indicates that historical context is the basis of the present incidences captured in numerous text
by authors. Whereas in understanding how the general perception of the feminine could have
promoted masculinity and promoted sexual dominance, it for a moment takes the reader away
from the reality that the rise of femininity in the contemporary literature is a result of the same
perceptions which persist despite the growth of civilization. Secondly, while the historical
context derived from these texts does not shield us from the effect of the absurdities, the reader is
bound to believe that absurd thinking was an isolated case despite modern trends which mirror
the same absurdity. One thus gets the false illusion of a worse period than theirs which promoted
evil or absurdities.
From this analysis, we determine that historical context plays two critical roles in
influencing how the reader interprets a text, and how they relate the text to the contemporary
setting. To be specific, many readers have always linked the text they read to the historical
context to determine the level of accuracy, exaggeration, and bias expressed by the author of a
text. First, historical context helps the reader to understand why the author chooses certain terms,
why they decide that characters should interact in a certain way, and how the characters are
developed. The background of the text can also be traced from the historical context to help the
reader understand the themes, setting, and the general ideas expressed in the text. This way, the
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reader dissociates the content of the text from the contemporary setting. However, the negative
effect of this role is that it superimposes extraneous feelings on the reader which shields them
from the existential urgency of the same themes highlighted in the text from within their own
surroundings.
Works Cited
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Baker, Clayton J. "Commentary on an Excerpt From “A Country Doctor”." Academic
Medicine 90.11 (2015): 1529.
Kafka, Franz. A Country Doctor. (1918): 147-156.
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A Countrv Doctor
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
149
hams in that low space, showed an open blue-eyed face.
"Shall I yoke up?" he asked, crawling out on all fours. I
did not know what to say and merely stooped down to
see what else was in the sty. The servant girl was standing ~eside me. "You never know what yel're going to
~nd m your own house," she said, and we. ~th laughed.
Hey there, Brother, hey there, SisterI", •.alled the
groom, a_nd two horses, enormous creatures _·;h powerful flanks, one after the other, their legs tucked close
to their bodies, each well-shaped head lowered like a
camel's, by sheer strength of buttocking squeezed out
through the door hole which they filled entirely. But
at once they were standing up, their legs long and their
bodies steaming thickly. "Give him a hand," I said, and
the willing girl hurried to help the groom with the
harnessing. Yet hardly was she beside him when. the
groom clipped hold of her and pushed his face against
hers. She screamed _and fled back to me; on her cheek.
stood out in red the marks of two rows of teeth. "You
?rute," I yelled in fury, "do you want a whipping?" but
m the same moment reflected that the man was a
stranger; that I did not know where he 'came from,
and that of his own free will he was helping me out
when everyone else had failed me. As if he knew my
thoughts he took no offense at my threat but, still busied
with the horses, only turned round once towards me,
"Get in," he said then, and indeed everything was
ready. A magnificent pair of horses, I observed, such as
I had never sat behind, and I climbed in happily. "But
I'll drive, you don't know the way," I said. :·of course,''
said he, 'Tm not coming with you anyway, I'm staying
h
J WAS in great perplexity; I had to start on an urgent
. journey; a seriously ill patient was waiting for me in a
village ten miles off; a thick blizzard of snow filled all
· the wide spaces between him and me; I had a gig, a light
gig with big wheels, exactly right for our country roads;
· muflled in furs, my bag of instruments in my hand, I
was in the courtyard all ready for the journey; but
there was no horse to be had, no horse. My own horse
had died in the night, worn out by the fatigues of this
icy winter; my servant girl was now running round the
village trying to borrow. a horse; but it was hopeless, I
!:.new it, and I stood there forlornly, with the snow gathering more and more thickly upon me, more and more
unable to move. In the gateway the girl appeared, alone,
and waved .the lantern; of course, who would lend a
horse at this time for such a journey? I strode through
the courtyard once more; I could see .no way out;· in ·
my confused distress I kicked at the dilapidated door
of the year-long uninhabited pigsty. It flew open and
flapped to 1and £ro on its hinges. A steam and smell as
of, horses came out £rom it. A dim. stable lantern was
swinging inside from a rope. A man, crouching on his
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150
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
151
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with Rose." "No," shrieked Rose, fleeing into the house
with a justified presentiment that her fate· was inescapable; I heard the door chain rattle as she put· it up; I
heard the key tum in the lock; I could see, moreove~,
how she, put out the lights in the entrance hall and in
further flight all through the rooms to keep herself from
being discovered. "You're coming with me," I said tci
the groom, "or I won't go, urgent as my journey is. I'm
not thinking of paying for it by handing the girl over to
you.'' "Gee· up!" he said; clapped his hands; the gig
whirled off like a log in a freshet; I could just hear the
door of my house splitting and bursting as the groom
charged at it and then I was deafened and blinded by
a storming rush that steadily buffeted all my senses. But
. this only for a moment, since, as if my patient's farm'
yard had opened out just before my courtyard gate;
I was already there; the horses had come quietly to
a standstill; the blizzard had stopped; moonlight all
around; my patient's parents hurried out of the house,
his sister behind them; I was almost lifted out of the
gig; from their confused ejaculations I gathered not
word; in the sickroom the air was almost unbreathable;
the neglected stove was smoking; I wanted to push
open a window; but first I had to look at my patient.
Gaunt, without any fever, not cold, not warm, witl1
vacant eyes, without a shirt, the youngster heaved himself up from under the feather bedding, threw his arms
, round my neck, and whispered· in my ear: "Doctor,
· kt me die.'' I glanced round the room; no one had
heard it; the parents were leaning. forward in silence
waiting for my verdict; .the sister hJld set a chair for my
a
handbag; I opened the bag and hunted among my iri,
struments;. the boy kept clutching at me from his bed
to remind me of. his entreaty; I ·picked up a pair of
tweezers, examined : them in the candlelight and laid
them down again. "Yes, ... I thought blasphemously, "in
cases like this the gods are helpful, send· the missing
horse, add to it a second because of the urgency, and to
crown everything bestow even a groom-·: And only now
did I remember Rose again; what was I to do, how could
I rescue her, how could I pull her away from under that
groom. at ten miles' distance, with a team of horses I
couldn't. control. The~,\ horses, now, they had somehow slipped the rdns '. ,•e, pushed the windows open
from outside, I did not J \ow. how; each of them had
stuck a head in at a wind°'' 'and, quite unmoved by the
startled cries of the family, stobd eyeing the patient~
"Better go back at. once," I thought, .as if the horses
were. summoning me to the return journey, yet I permitted the patient's sister, who fancied that I was dazed
by the heat, to take my fur coat from me. A glass of rum
was poured out for me, the old man clapped me on the
shoulder, a familiarity justified by this offer of his treasure. I shook my head; in the narrow confines of the old
man's thoughts I felt ill; that was my' only reason for
refusing the drink. The mother stood by the bedside
and cajoled me towards it;. I yielded, and, while one of
the horses whinnied loudly to the ceiling, laid my head
to the boy's breast, which shivered under my wet beard.
'I confirmed what I already knew; the boy was quite
sound, something a little wrong with his circulation,
saturated with coffee by his solicitous mother, but sound
A COUNTRY DOCTOR
and best turned out of bed with one shove. I am no
world reformer and so I let him lie. I was the district
doctor and did my duty to the uttermost, to the point
where it became almost too much. I was badly paid and
yet generous and helpful to the poor. I had still to see
that Rose was all right, and then the boy might have
his way and I wanted to die too. What wa5 I doing there
in that endless winter! My horse was dead, and not a
single pers
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