STEPHEN GREENBLATT
• Introduced term “New
Historicism”
• Renaissance SelfFashioning (1980)
– Self as construction
– Identity = desired selfrepresentation + power
relations
– Power relations as most
(?) important context
STEPHEN GREENBLATT
• “Towards a Poetics of
Culture” (1987)
– Relationship between
text and context
– Aesthetic production in
capitalist society
– E.g. Ronald Reagan’s
movie quotations
STEPHEN GREENBLATT
Marxism (Jameson)
Capitalism as…
-Agent of “repressive
differentiation”
-Introduces privacy and
the individual
-Shatters the unity of
politics and poetry
Poststructuralism
(Lyotard)
Capitalism as…
-Agent of “false
integration, monological
totalization”
-Destroys privacy,
individuals, etc. through
creation of single
language
STEPHEN GREENBLATT
• Oscillation between
totalization and
difference in U.S.
culture
• Self-consciousness of
New Historicism
• Work of art = creator(s)
+ societal
institutions/practices
FRANK LENTRICCHIA
“Foucault’s Legacy – A New Historicism?”
• Causality vs. Determinism
– [everything a product of its
environment vs. absence of
free will]
• Theoretical dilemma of
determinism [without it,
N.H.=worthless; with it,
N.H.=disabled]
• Old Historicism vs. New
Historicism [Hippolyte Tain
vs. Stephen Greenblatt]
FRANK LENTRICCHIA
“Foucault’s Legacy – A New Historicism?”
Taine's (Incoherent) Old
Historicism
• 1. No human nature
• 2. History = discontinuous
• 3. Commitment to
continuity and
determinism
• 4. Humanist impulse
Greenblatt's New
Historicism
• 1. Objectivity impossible
• 2. Discontinuity of history
mapped as continuous
narrative through self
• 3. Human subject =
product of power
relations
• 4. Misapplication of
Marx?
FRANK LENTRICCHIA
“Foucault’s Legacy – A New Historicism?”
• Odd identity of New
Historicism (“Marriage”
of Foucault and Marx)Self as effect, not origin
• Struggles against
dominant ideology =
futile
• Need to sustain illusion
that self-fashioning is
possible
LOUIS A. MONTROSE
“Professing the Renaissance: The Poetics and Politics of Culture”
• Early proponent of New
Historicism
• Literature: Historically
determined and
determining
• Interconnectedness of
the LINGUISTIC and the
SOCIAL
LOUIS A. MONTROSE
“Professing the Renaissance: The Poetics and Politics of Culture”
• Historicity of Texts,
Textuality of History
• Need for self-awareness
of our own historicity
• Meaning of text =
unstable; historically
specific
CATHERINE GALLAGHER
“Marxism and The New Historicism”
• Politics and New
Historicism
• “…No cultural or critical
practice is simply a
politics in disguise” (37)
• Departure from
Marxism and
continuation of New
Left thought
CATHERINE GALLAGHER
“Marxism and The New Historicism”
• New Left Thought:
– 1960s/70s social
movement
– Departure from
traditional
Leftism/Marxism
– Intellectuals as agents of
social revolution
– Associated with “Hippie
Movement” and political
radicalism
CATHERINE GALLAGHER
“Marxism and The New Historicism”
• New Left
Consequences:
– Emphasis on
“indeterminant
negativity” (41)
– Collapse of logic of
representation
• Impact of New Left and
Women’s Liberation
Movement on literary
theory
CATHERINE GALLAGHER
“Marxism and The New Historicism”
• Tension between form and ideology
– No simple solution; they do not simply affirm or
negate one another
– N.H. use this tension to construct subjectivity
• Politics and New Historicism = All about
subjectivity
• New Historicist “unlike the Marxist, is under
no nominal compulsion to achieve
consistency” (46)
IN SUMMARY…
• Reciprocal, unstable relationship between
literature and history
• Influence of Marxism and Poststructuralism
• Dilemma of causality vs. determinism
• Need for self-consciousness of our own
historicity
• Presence and importance of subjectivity