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New Historicism & Historical Criticism
By: Elizabeth Lepe & Julia Huerta
Works Cited
Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin. "What Is New Historicism?" What Is New Historicism? Cliff Notes, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
"Historical Criticism." Historical Criticism. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
Stephens, Mitchell. "Stephen Greenblatt - New Historicism - Mitchell Stephens." Stephen Greenblatt - New Historicism - Mitchell Stephens. West Magazine, 1 Mar. 1992. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Research:
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Example: For example, in Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen in 1795, when Margaret is talking about a man of no profession it contains a different meaning than it would today. During Austen's time in England, the man without a profession would have been a gentleman, a man of wealth. In addition, knowing the English laws regarding women owning property at the time the novel was written not only is imperative to understanding why the women in the story are impoverished even though their father died very rich, but the knowledge also allows the reader to recognize themes throughout the text relating to the treatment of women.
How do we do it: 1. Research the author's time (the political history, literary period, economic history, cultural climate, philosophers of the time, and social environment).
2. Relate that information to the work. How was the work influenced by the time period? How does the work make statements about events or conditions of the time?
3. Examine the work for references, attitudes, and relationships that may be better understood through research.
4. Look for changes in language connotations.
5. Research the time in which the story takes place.
6. Research the characteristics of the literary period.
7. Relate all information to the inferential and evaluative levels of the story.
Origin: This way of reading literature flourished in Anglo-American universities in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. In addition to pursuing a work's connection to the well-known events of its era, like wars, plagues, revolutions, etc., the historical critics did much to produce more accurate pictures of the cultures which produced and consumed literature. They scoured the Public Records Office (P.R.O.) in London for evidence of financial and criminal proceedings involving authors and people known to them, and they sought evidence from other old document hoards like the records of great baronial estates in England, plantations in the Americas, and commercial enterprises.
Historical Criticism:
How do you do it?
Historical Criticism:
Historical criticism explores the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts surrounding the creation and reception of a work of literature; it uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly. Historicists aim simultaneously to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature. Two premises of historical criticism are that the social, political, and cultural contexts (the historical influences) affect the creation of works of literature and that the meaning of literature changes over time as these same contexts change.
How do you do it: new historicism can be done by studying key pieces in literature that can give any type of information about the time or events occuring during the piece of writting. Identifying these clues will allow to find what inf influenced the author.
Textual Example:
Shakespeare's merchant of Venice, there is the question whether the play shows Shakespeare to be anti-semitic. This work must be judged in the context in which it was written. Cultural history can be revealed by studying the use of dispersion of power and the marginalization of social classes within work. studying the history reveals more about the text.
Major players:
Stephen Greenblatt, Michel Foucault, and Hayden White, among others.
Definition:
A literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted with in the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic.
Origin: 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 nineteen eightee's with Stephen Greenblatt as its main proponent.