History is a composition of past events. It is real and honest. However, the materials used by historians (which are called sources) to study history are only records of history, so they need not to be absolutely true and unbiased. If a group of scholars were to evaluate a set of clues surrounding a play, they would mainly use texts and written records of the play and all these evidences are considered sources which therefore need to be carefully examined before put into use. To these scholars, Postlewait and the editors of Theatre Histories (both thoroughly assessing the limitation of the historical sources and proper ways to apply them to theater histories in their books) might give advices regarding the method of historical analysis, the attitude toward theatrical text, and the consideration of the context of a play.
Firstly, Postlewait might advise an economic historian to use both the inductive and deductive modes of thinking in his or her historical research. Normally, an economic problem involves a number of quantitative calculations. So, an economic historian might also prefer to use data to analyze theater history. For example, he or she may be interested in a …show more content…
For example, when trying to explain the difference between the Ibsen’s and Mabou Mines’ production of doll house, a theater historian could simply look into the contexts of these two productions. In Ibsen’s social context, discussion of female equality was a serious topic, so he interpreted his play as a tragedy. However, in the contemporary context, feminism is common for and well accepted, so the contrast between docile females and dominant males becomes ironic or even comical today. The authors of Theater Histories have obviously realized the importance of context in a theater historical analysis, therefore they would advise a theater historian to pay attention to the context of a
Firstly, Postlewait might advise an economic historian to use both the inductive and deductive modes of thinking in his or her historical research. Normally, an economic problem involves a number of quantitative calculations. So, an economic historian might also prefer to use data to analyze theater history. For example, he or she may be interested in a …show more content…
For example, when trying to explain the difference between the Ibsen’s and Mabou Mines’ production of doll house, a theater historian could simply look into the contexts of these two productions. In Ibsen’s social context, discussion of female equality was a serious topic, so he interpreted his play as a tragedy. However, in the contemporary context, feminism is common for and well accepted, so the contrast between docile females and dominant males becomes ironic or even comical today. The authors of Theater Histories have obviously realized the importance of context in a theater historical analysis, therefore they would advise a theater historian to pay attention to the context of a