Reconstructing Historicism

Paper No: 2 (Literary Theory)Enrollment No: 2069112220170004

Course: M.PhilSubmitted to: Department of English

MKBUSubmitted by: Dipti Vaghela

What is Reconstructing Historicism?

• It is a literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic.

• It is new inside to look history through new type of theory or angel.

• This term introduced by Stephen Greenblatt in 1980. Afterwards it goes on spreading during the same decade.

• He wrote in his book, context is replaced by co-text and non-literary text from the same time period.

• It means we have to observed that time through non-literary texts also.

It is new inside as compare to old way of looking literary texts

Generally in old period, we were looking just esthetics value of the works like,

-themes-characters-plot-moral, etc.But, now a days we are looking

through many other glasses of various theories. So, that we call new historicism.

Michel Foucault

• His theory of collective cultural knowledge, documents in order to understand that particular time.

• Its aims at interpreting a literary text as an expression of or reaction to the power- structures of the surrounding society.

• For example ‘The Purpose’ by T.P. Kailasam.• A tempest and The tempest.

Deals with these many words

• Circulation• Context• Hegemony• Ideology• History• Power

Examples of power structure

• Every government and society talk about poor or marginalized people. In literature also people like Bakha in Untouchable, Gangu in Two leaves and a Bud, Munoo in Coolie, Velutha in The God of small things and many other always suffer.

Relationship to other Movements

• It is related to Cultural studies, which is a broader movement in the humanities and social science.

• It emphasizes that individual experience is culturally specific, rather than universal.

• So, after all these both are inter related.

Camille Pagalia

• The New historicism coming out of Berkeley.

• New historicism is “a refuse of English majors without critical talent or broad learning in history or political science, lack of historical sense”.

Conclusion

• Thus, New historicism is nothing but the word of the past replaced the world of the past.

• Or the aim is not to represent the past as it really was, but to present a new reality by re-situating it.

• Thus, after all we can’t conclude anything that which is truth about history because it is only spoken by survivors.

Work Cited

Waugh, Patricia. "Reconstructing Historicism." Literary theory and criticism. n.d. 386-403.

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