http://oyc.yale.edu/transcript/469/engl-300 ENGL-300: INTRODUCTION TO THEORY OF LITERATURE Lecture 19 - The New Historicism [March 31‚ 2009] Chapter 1. Origins of New Historicism [00:00:00] Professor Paul Fry: So today we turn to a mode of doing literary criticism which was extraordinarily widespread beginning in the late seventies and into the eighties‚ called the New Historicism. It was definable in ways that I’ll turn to in a minute and‚ as I say‚ prevalent to a remarkable degree everywhere
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New Historicism is a theory in literary criticism that suggests literature must be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. The theory arose in the 1980s‚ with Stephen Greenblatt as its main proponent‚ and became quite popular in the 1990s. Critics using this approach look at a work and consider other writings that may have inspired it or were inspired by it‚ as well as the life of the author and how it relates to the text. There
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New Historicism is a literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and intrepreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Based on the literary criticism of Stephen Greenblatt and influenced by the philosophy of Michel Foucault‚ New Historicism acknowledges not only that a work of literature is influenced by its author’s times and circumstances‚ but that the critic’s response to that work is also influenced by his environment‚ beliefs
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New Historicism and Eyes Watching God New Historicism has developed from the "New" Criticism’s inclination to treat works of literature in a historical way. The New Historicist conditions include the fact that images and narratives do important cultural work. They serve as a kind of workshop where cultural problems‚ hopes‚ and obsessions are addressed or avoided. Consequently‚ New Historicists argue that the best backdrop for interpreting literature is to place it in its
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Producing the Subject: A New Historicist Reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wall-paper’ As we know‚ new historicism is the American form of criticism which is mostly applied to Renaissance literature‚ esp. the works of Shakespeare‚ and it uses Poststructuralist criticism. What interests new historicists most is the poststructuralist notion of the self‚ of discourse‚ and of power; with regard to power‚ new historicism leans more towards a Foucauldian notion of power and focuses on
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the leading characters. CULTURAL MATERIALISM: - A critical practice that concentrates on the interventions whereby men and women make heir own history and situate the literary text in the political situation of our own (and not of its own day as New Historicists do). - It reads the literary text in a way as to enable us to “recover histories”. - It uses the technique of close textual analysis but often employ structuralist and post-structuralist techniques. - It works mainly within traditional
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identified in various works by critics published during 1970’s. But the term ‘New Historicism’ is accurately coined by the American Critic Stephen Greeblatt in his book ‘Renaissance Self – Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare’. He simply defined ‘New Historicism’ as a method based on the parallel reading of literary and non-literary texts usually of the same historical period. A few fiction writers used this concept in their works. One among the few is William Darlymple‚ a Scotland Writer. His approach
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New Historical and Cultural Criticism in The Great Gatsby Main characteristics of New Historicism • • • • • • There are no facts – just interpretations (Tyson 286) Power circulates from all social levels at all time (Tyson 287) “history is neither linear (…) nor progressive (…)” (Tyson 287) no universal spirit of an age – always opposition (Tyson 287) analysis of history is always subjective (Tyson 287) Individual and culture define each other (Tyson 287) New historicism applied
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individual‚ or small group‚ occupying a position of authority from which he (seldom she) attempts to force his will upon others. Today’s equivalent of a feudal monarch is the power-hungry politician‚ the cult leader‚ or the ruthless business tycoon. But the new historicist conception of power is different; rather than being a top-down affair that originates from a specific place or individual‚ power comes from all around us‚ it permeates us‚ and it influences us in many subtle and different ways. This idea
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New Historicism is a modern literary theory that focuses on how events‚ culture‚ and places within a society influence a written work. New Historicists analyze allusions to characteristics of the time period in which the work was written. By definition‚ new historicism seeks to discover the significance in a text by taking into account the work within the construction of the established ideas and assumptions of its historical era. Literary texts are entrenched with historical context and the author
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