328. Theory 03: New Historicism & Cultural Materialism

Old Historicism is mainly related to the writers. It emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s. It was reaction against New Criticism which only focussed on the work without taking historical context in consideration. Louis Montrose stresses in the history of times. He scrutinises Mary Shelley's work "Frankenstein" saying that such genre evolved when there were some political or other social turmoils were ongoing.

New Historicism is about the power structure and discourse that is propagated in the work. If a work is supporting the people in power or going against it. Stephen Greenblatt, Havard Professor is the founding figure and popularised it. He wrote "The Forms of Power in the Renaissance" (1982). His "Renaissance Self-Fashioning" (1980) is another endorsing work. He also won Pulitzer Prize. He was co-founder of a literary journal called "Representations". He wrote "Will", the biography of William Shakespeare. "Shakespearean Negotiations" is his another work.

Culture is our lived experience. The way we work, dress, eat, etc which circulates our social energy. So, the theory can also be called as 'Cultural Poetics.'

New Historicism rejects the autonomy of literature. It sees texts as products and vice versa.

Michel Foucault, Gramsci and others also influenced New Historicism.

Clifford Geertz's 'Thick Descriptions' analyses texts and their contexts in layers like the peeling of onions.

Urvashi Butolia's asks to analyse minor details because the theory punctures the earlier grand narratives like Deconstruction, etc. The traditional literary canons were questioned.

Catherine Gallagher's "The Industrial Reformation of English Fiction" brings between the relation between fiction and economic systems which are very data-driven which readers and audience like. She asks never to ignore the economic aspect.

Subversion, Containment are other terms related to New Historicism.

Raymond Williams, Jonathan Dollimore, Jerome McGann, Alan Liu, Stephen Orgel, and others are others who were part of this theory. Liu rejects it saying that we are still going back to the texts only. McGann stresses on the Romantic aspects of texts.

Cultural Materialism is the European version of New Historicism.