New Historicism

 New Historicism

New Historicism is a erudite proposition grounded on the idea that literature should be studied and intrepreted within the environment of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Grounded on the erudite review of Stephen Greenblatt and told by the gospel of New Historicism Michel Foucault, New Historicism acknowledges not only that a work of literature is told by its author's times and circumstances, but that the critic's response to that work is also told by his terrain, beliefs, and prejudices.

 A New Historicist looks at literature in a wider literal environment, examining both how the pen's times affected the work and how the work reflects the pen's times, in turn feting that current artistic surrounds color that critic's conclusions.

 For illustration, when studying Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, one always comes to the question of whether the play shows Shakespeare to beanti-Semitic. The New Historicist recognizes that this is not a simple yea-or-no answer that can be teased out by studying the textbook. New Historicism This work must be judged in the environment in which it was written; in turn, artistic history can be revealed by studying the work — especially, say New Historicists, by studying the use and dissipation of power and the marginalization of social classes within the work. Studying the history reveals further about the textbook; studying the textbook reveals further about the history.

 The New Historicist also acknowledges that his examination of literature is" tainted"by his own culture and terrain. New Historicism The very fact that we ask whether Shakespeare wasanti-Semitic — a question that wouldn't have been considered important a century ago — reveals how our study of Shakespeare is affected by our civilization.