New Historicism and Race and
Ethnic Studies
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“New” vs. “Old” Historicism
• “Old” Historicism
– History provides the background and context for a
story.
– History is stable and objective.
• Literature reflects or presents history.
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“New” vs. “Old” Historicism
• “Old” Historicism
– History provides the background and context for a
story.
– History is stable and objective.
• Literature reflects or presents history.
• New Historicism
– Both history and literature are complex and uncertain.
– Need to consider multiple points of view and
interpretations.
• History and literature = cycle of mutual influence. (Make and
remake each other.)
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New Historicism
• Move away from essentialism
– History is a construction rather than an “essence”
or truth.
• E.g. One view= Christopher Columbus discovered
America.
• Another=Columbus was a brutal invader and
conqueror.
– It’s important to consider history from multiple
viewpoints and to understand it as a “text.”
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Race and Ethnic Studies
• Overlaps with more specific focal points and
areas:
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South Asian Studies
African Studies
Latin American Studies
Pacific Studies
In the U.S.:
• Asian American Studies, Latina/Latino studies (or
Chicana/Chicano studies, depending on emphasis), American
Indian Studies, African American Studies, Hawaiian Studies,
etc.
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“Zooming In”:
Gloria Anzaldúa and Borderlands/La Frontera
• Theorist in cultural studies, feminism, and
queer theory
• Borderlands/La Frontera
– Emphasis on honoring or celebrating the mixing of
national, racial, sexual, and gendered cultures and
identities.
– Language and Identity
• Seamless movement between many different
languages and dialects (multiple versions of English and
Spanish, including Spanglish and Nahuatl)
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Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa
“So if you really want to hurt me, talk badly
about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin
to linguistic identity−I am my language. Until I
can take pride in my language, I cannot take
pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate
Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex, and all of the
other languages that I speak, I cannot accept
the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to
write bilingually and to switch codes without
always having to translate, while I still have to
speak English or Spanish when I would rather
speak Spanglish, as as long as I have to
accommodate English speakers rather than
having them accommodate me, my tongue will
be illegitimate.
I will no longer be made to be ashamed of
existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish,
white. I will have my serpent’s tongue−my
woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s
voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence”
(81).
Anzaldúa, Gloria Evangelina. Borderlands/La Frontera. 2nd Ed. San
Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999.
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