New Historicism

New historicism is a type of literature that finds relationships between the historical context of the writing and a modern reader’s interpretation of the writing. I believe that new historicism is a really difficult type of literature to appreciate, because most of the text is being compared to information based on the history or background behind the writing. That means that if you have an insufficient amount of knowledge about the topic, than the writing will be vague. I also believe that new historicism is a type of literature or writing that is intended for the individual that proposed his ideas about the modern world. When new historicists are trying to relate writing to culture and social beliefs, I also think that everyone will develop their own point of view in culture. Since new historicism is being referenced so much on the modern world, the strength and power of the text is being weakened because a word like Romance can have many points of views. This creates many biased opinions to readers; some may find it offensive or interesting.

New historicists see literary work as “a vessel tossed in a social sea of competing interests, antagonistic values”. The word competing interests means that there are rivalries between two people’s ideas, and the word agonistic values mean that there is an opposition or resistance for all beliefs. Basically, this quote is trying to imply that literature is something that should be thrown to the public, in which people can criticize the writing. This quote also states that every literary work should be evaluated or critically observed in a way where the reader can always oppose or disagree against the idea.

For example an author named, Geenblatt finds literary works to be “fields of force, places of dissension and shifting interests, occasions for the jostling of orthodox and subversive impulses”. The word fields of force mean that there is resistance between two different forces or ideas. The word dissension means that there is a disagreement or conflict between two different people’s opinions. This quote is implying that literature is something that should be used for discussion among different people. It also mentions that people should never have the same idea or opinion towards literature. Greenblatt’s idea of literary work is different from how other new historicists interpret literary work. Other new historicists believe that disagreements about a literary work should occur between people and the text (literature vs. people), but Greenblatt believes that there should be disagreement discussion about a literary work among people (people vs. people). The quote also states that there can be different point of views pertaining to politics and culture. For example, someone who believes in Judaism may not believe that god created Adam and Eve. Greenblatt was able to revolutionize the meaning of new historicism. Back then, most historicists believes in the power of words, but Greenblatt believes that literature is stronger when relations to the world are being connected to the modern world.