What is a historical context and can texts be explained or enriched by considerations of context?

What is a historical context and can texts be explained or enriched by considerations of context?
<Tab/>A definition of the phrase 'historical context' is the historical 'circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully evaluated and assessed'1. In looking at the historical context of literature there are different strains that can be looked at; such as the writer's context, the text's context, the readings context and the language context.2 When applied to literature, this way of reading clearly opens up a great deal…