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Characteristics of the New Historicism
Critical Theory |
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- New Historicism is a very modern critical theory.
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- It was a response to texts being taken completely out
of historical context in the early and middle part of the twentieth century.
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- Most New Historicists say that in order to best
understand a text, one must look at that tests in historical context.
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- The New Historicist sees texts in terms of how
culture is used and valued by the author.
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- At the inception of this theory, hopes were that
social issues would be brought to points of prominence.
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- Focus mainly on the political science and
anthropological issues as opposed to sociological and economic.
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- New Historicism was originally used specifically for
early modern texts (sixteenth and seventeenth century).
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- New Historicism came under fire when scholars began
to think of this as a formal theory. In response, Greenblatt
wrote that, rather than being a doctrine, New Historicism is a
"series of questions and problems".
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- Louis Montrose, another important critic, wrote that
New Historicism is requires an intersection of culture and writing
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