1. “Old” Historicism vs. New Historicism
Literary Theory
“Old” Historicism vs. New Historicism

2. What is Literary Historicism?
Literary Historicism is the field of study devoted to grasping the relationship which links a literary work to its social and historical context. 
The question arises, do social and historical determinants express or manifest themselves through literary works? 
Can a text, for example, a work of fantasy, be historically-informed even if it is not realistic? 

3. Old Historicism
History as written is an accurate view of what is really occurred.
History serves as a background to literature.
Historical textual background is secondarily important because the text mirrors the history of its time.
By applying the historical context to the texts the critic believes that he or she can formulate a more accurate interpretation of texts than if s/he did not know such historical context.

4. New Historicism Developed in the 1980’s
Reaction to the “text only” approach of formalism. (Formalism suggests that meaning can be found only in the work itself, not in external influences.)
New Historicists believe history is subjective: one of many discourses. History is shaped by the people who lived it.

5. New Historicism
Emphasizes “the interaction between historic context of the work and modern reader’s understanding and interpretation.”
Historicists consider both the cultural and social forces that influenced the creation of a text and are revealed through a text.
Views a text as “culture in action,” blurring the distinction between an artistic production and any other kind of social production or event.

6. New Historicism
New historicists assume that works of literature both influence and are influenced by historical reality, and they share a belief that literature both refers and is referred to by things outside itself.
New Historicists are also unlikely to view history as a linear progression leading to present day; therefore, they often dismiss the Zeitgeist (“spirit of the times”) of an era. Hence, they are unlikely to suggest that a literary text has a single or easily identifiable historical context.

7. New Historicism
The historical criticism practiced in the 1980s, however, was not the same as the historical criticism of the 1930s and 1940s.
New Historicists believe that criticism should incorporate diverse discourses; new historicism is informed by poststructuralist theory, as well as feminist, cultural, and Marxist criticism.

8. The Cycle of Creation
Historicists examine not only the influence of the social, cultural, and historical circumstances on the work, but also the reception and significance of that work in the past and present.
Texts are really social documents that reflect but also, and more importantly, respond to their historical situation.
It’s kind of like a cycle…

9. New Historicist View of Literature
Society/culture influences the creation of a work
Work is published
Society/culture digests the work and is changed by it in some small (or large) way
Altered society/culture influences the creation of a new work (rinse and repeat)

10. In the End…
A complex interrelationship of a variety of discourses: the various ways-artistic, social, political, and so on-that people think and talk about their world.

11. Other Theories

12. Other Theories

13. Other Theories