STEPHEN GREENBLATT Introduced term “New Historicism” Renaissance Self- Fashioning (1980) – Self as construction – Identity = desired self- representation + 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