New Historicism

1. New Historicism Noah Heath, Curtis Goodman, Ledell Moore, Avery Glass

2. Key Points • New historicists read a periodic texts as being in conflict. Viewed rebellion/subversion favorably, all of the forces seemed to be in a state of irresolvable tension. • New historicists see texts as biased narratives. History isn’t fact but it is rather objective. • No one text is superior to any other text. Any text might yield valuable information.

3. Key Points • New Historicists also reject the ahistoricism of the New Critics that had preceded it • New Historicists related problems within the text to the cultural historical problems that exists during the time that the text was written • New historicists were no longer were associated with a historicism of new critics. • Study of Renaissance and the study of culture.

4. Key Points • Images, symbols, and points of view address and reflect the cultural problems, hopes, or obsessions when the text was written. • Concerned with history, influences, values, tensions, and motivations in a text.

5. Key Terms • Discourse- language practice- language used by different groups • Power- held by those who are in charge and thus control the language and the ways in which language reflects their biases and views. • Self-positioning- the personal biases, ideological positions, and attitudes of those who write about texts and history. • Thick Description- details included in a writer accounting of time, place, people, events, and cultural practices. Write must include as many details as possible.

6. Key Names • Michael Foucault(1972-1984)- French philosopher. • Clifford Geertz(1983)- Anthropologist • Stephen Greenblatt(1980-2001)- Literary Critic. One of the Founders of New Historicism. • Catherine Gallagher(2000)- Literary Critic

7. Example of New Historicism- Cinderella • Women’s place into society is portrayed clearly. • Women generally don’t gain status in society unless they marry into money. Reflection of the time period. • Renaissance time period. Fairy God mother, princes, and ugly step sisters representative of cultural problems, hopes, and obsessions during that time period. • Told over centuries back to ancient Greek times. • Cinderellla is reflective of social conflicts throughout history.