1. NEW HISTORICISM/ CULTURAL STUDIES
Both focus on historical content, theoretical method, political commitment, and textual analysis

2. New Historicism:
Similar to Historicism in that it focuses on a work’s historical content and bases interpretation on the interplay between text and historical context.
Considered “new” because it was influenced by the “new” theories of Poststructuralism, Reader-response, Marxism, Feminist, and Cultural criticisms.
Less fact-oriented than historical critics because they question the idea of objective truth (history books are created by the victor). We only have our interpretation.

3. New Historicism Continued:
Literary text does not have a single identifiable historical context
Foucault believed that no historical event has a single identifiable cause – vast web of economic, social, and political factors. Ideologies of a time period are shaped and have been shaped by the culture of each historical period

4. Cultural Studies:
Differs from New Historicism because it emphasizes that ordinary people, the receivers of cultural forms may resist dominant ideology. Generally affirms popular culture rather than attempting to destroy it.
Comprises of all the meaningful artifacts of culture. Idea of text is written language, films, photographs, fashion, hairstyles.
Cultural Hegemony (he je mo ne) – preponderant influence or domination of one nation over another, one culture over another. One social class manipulates values of a society.

5. How to do both:
Ask what language/characters/events in text reflect the author’s time period?
Are there words in the text that have changed meaning since time of writing?
How are events of text interpreted and presented?
How are the events’ interpretation and presentation a product of author’s culture?
Does the work’s presentation support or condemn events? Can it be seen as both?

6. How to do both continued:
How does the text consider traditionally marginalized populations?
How does this portrayal criticize the leading political figures or movements of the day?
How does the text fit in with the rest of the texts from the same time period?
How has the text been created by and created culture?