New Historicism

1. New Historicism Michael O Owen G Isaac H

2. Four Main Points to Investigate • The life of the author • The social rules found in the text • The manner in which the text reveals a situation • The ways in which other historical texts can help us understand the text

3. Basic Background • Developed in response to the critics who challenged the New Criticism in the 1970s • New Criticism: type of formalist literary criticism, ignoring importance of historical context • This approach is used to criticize based on the acknowledgment of the literary text, but also to analyze based on the time period of the character or the author. • Some questions to consider while reading: • Are the events happening in the past, present or future tense? • What is the time period and the history of the subject?

4. Pros Knowing the historical background of a text helps to better understand the context of a text better. In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, if the reader did not know the story was based on the Russian Revolution of the 20th Century, the book would simply be one of an odd farm tale, where the animals take over a family farm.

5. Cons • The reader incorporates their own bias of the history learned in the time period they grew up in • The reader may be drawn away from the actual text, and possibly focus on the history and background of the time, making preconceived notions about the content instead of examining the text first.

6. How the Historical Approach Connects to Our Poem Historical criticism connects to the poem Passport by Mahmoud Darwish because it is written about his past experiences. The definition of the historical/biographical approach states that it is necessary to understand the person or characters history to develop an understanding about the writing. This entire poem is written in past tense, showing that it is the history of the writer, it is necessary to recognize this in the story because it shows more about where the writing comes from.