Critical examination is important in both academic and private realms. In order to competently engage with criticism, we often have to employ a lens. And there are many of them in academia. New Historicism, for instance, is just one of these multitudes. While there are no “correct” ways to critique, I think there are lenses that are more commonly implemented. In this way, New Historicism is common, but it is also an extremely important lens for critical examination.
How Do We Define New Historicism?
To begin, New Historicism came out of the reinterpretations of criticism in the 1980s. This included authors like Michel Foucault and Stephen Greenblatt. This form of criticism moved away from the “text-centered” application of earlier disciplines. These earlier critiquing methodologies include Formalism and New Criticism. Meanwhile, New Historicism embraced a text’s social and political messages.
This is also opposed to New Critics, who wanted to view art without interference from the writer. Nevertheless, the New Historicist attempts to look at art by examining all of the social and cultural events around a text. There is little room for subjective and objective takes. Literature and history influence each other in meaningful and equal ways, in this case.
Some things New Historicists look for include:
- power dynamics
- ideology
- oral and written discourse
Why is this Lens important?
New Historicism give us a way to view a text alongside primary and secondary sources. The context of the text is combined with the text itself. That is to say, both historical documents and literature are weighed equally in analyses. This may include an old treatise compared to a writing of the time. How do they reflect each other? Meanwhile, New Historicists look at how literature expresses itself to power structures and social control. This gives us insight into how literature has been shaped through the dominate actors of our time.
As stated, New Historicists examine the salient aspects of a books historical context. This is important especially if you consider the myriad of books written with history, but also books that are influenced by historical elements or that can be examined by its relation to history. Greenblatt’s Learning to Curse features New Historicist examination between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and language and identity.
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