New Historicism

New Historicism

 

'New Historicism’ is the American counterpart of Cultural Materialism. The term 'New Historicism' was coined by the American critic Stephen Greenblatt, whose book Renaissance Self-Fashioning: from More Shakespeare (1980) is usually regarded as its beginning

A simple definition of the ‘new historicism’ is that it is a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts, usually of the same historical period. That is to say, new historicism refuses to 'privilege' the literary text: instead of a literary 'foreground' and a historical background' it visualises and practises a mode of study in which literary and non-literary texts are given equal weight and constantly inform or interrogate each other. This 'equal weighting' is suggested in the definition of new historicism offered by the American critic Louis Montrose: he defines it as a combined interest in the textuality of history, the historicity of texts'. By historicity of texts he meant that all texts were embedded in specific social and cultural contexts and by textuality of history he meant that all our knowledge and understanding of the past can only exist through the surviving textual traces of the society in question. Thus the new historicists are concerned with the role of historical context in interpreting literary texts and the role of literature in mediating history.  

Typically, a new historical essay will place the literary text within the 'frame of a non-literary text’. Thus, Greenblatt in his study put beside the plays of the Renaissance period with 'the horrifying colonialist policies pursued by all the major European powers of the era'. He draws attention to the marginalization and dehumanizing of suppressed Others', usually by starting an essay with an analysis of a contemporary historical document which overlaps in some way with the subject matter of the play. Since these historical documents are not subordinated as contexts, but are analysed in their own right, we should perhaps call them 'co-texts rather than 'contexts'. The text and co-text used will be seen as expressions of the same historical moment, and interpreted accordingly.

            When we say that new historicism involves the parallel study of literary and non-literary texts, the word 'parallel' sum up the essential difference between this and earlier approaches to literature which had made some use of historical data. These earlier approaches made a hierarchical separation between the literary text, which was the object of value, the jewel, as it were, and the historical 'background', which was merely the setting, and by definition of lesser worth.

New historicism is strongly anti-establishment, always basing the study upon liberal ideas of personal freedom and accepting and celebrating all forms of differences. New historicism believed that the all-powerful state maintained its domination upon the private life of the individual not by physical force but by its discursive practices (use of knowledge and ideology). Michel Foucault’s thought linking knowledge with power and his study of the institutions which enabled this power to be maintained, like the state, punishment, prisons, medical establishment was very influential in the development of New Historicism. Besides, New Historicism as a whole is founded on poststructuralist thinking.

 

What new historicists do:

1.      They juxtapose literary and non-literary texts, reading the former in the light of the latter.

2.      They try thereby to 'defamiliarise' the canonical literary text, detaching it from the accumulated weight of previous literary scholarship and seeing it as if new.

3.      They focus attention (within both text and co-text) on issues of state power and how it is maintained, on patriarchal structures and their perpetuation, and on the process of colonisation, with its accompanying 'mind-set'.

4.      They make use of aspects of the post-structuralist outlook, especially Derrida's notion that every facet of reality is textualised, and Foucault's idea of social structures as determined by dominant 'discursive practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ecofeminism

                 ECOFEMINISM   Ecofeminism, is a term coined by French feminist Françoise d'Eaubonne in 1974. It is a branch of ecocriticism and feminism that examines the connections between women and nature. This philosophy examines the ways both nature and women are treated by patriarchal society. Ecofeminists cross-examine the effect of gender categories - the masculine; as objective, rational, and mind, and the feminine; as subjective, emotional and body - in order to demonstrate the ways in which man is equated with culture and woman with nature. For instance, the expression “mother nature” indicates the naturalization of woman and the feminization of nature, and illustrates how men dominate nature and women as if they are essentially exploitable objects. Ecofeminism can be classified into two: radical ecofeminism and cultural ecofeminism. Radical Ecofeminism One of its assumptions is that the dominant patriarchal so...
Read more

Cultural Studies

                          Cultural Studies        Towards the end of 1990s Cultural Studies dominated the direction of literary criticism. Cultural studies try to understand the functioning of culture, particularly in the modern world, how cultural productions work and how cultural identities are constructed and organized . It is defined as an interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of culture. This is a form of contemporary practices, other than theory, consisting of the elements of Marxism, post structuralism, postmodernism, feminism, gender studies, anthropology, ethnic studies, Sociology, film theory and postcolonial Studies. The first known exponent of cultural studies in England is Raymond Williams. With the founding of The Birmingham Centre for contemporary Cultural Studies or CCCS in 1964 by Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall, the new discipline officially emerges.      ...
Read more

Ecocriticism

            ECOCRITICISM     In Cheryll Glotfelty’s words, Ecocriticism is ‘the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment'. It is an interdisciplinary project which analyzes how the environment is represented in literature. It examines how the human treats the nonhuman around them and investigates possible solutions for the current environmental crisis. While the American version is commonly designated as Ecocriticism, the British school is known as Green Studies. The beginning of Ecocriticism can be traced back in the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 against the ill-effects of agricultural and industrial toxic-residue. It was a wakeup call for action against the existing but inconsistent patterns of development. Critics considered that the first wave of Ecocriticism was forth with Deep ecology. It believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all forms of life. It is an extreme...
Read more