New Historicism: The New Status Quo In The 20th Century

Eley writes it, the longing “for theoretical purity or some finality of resolution” had decreased among historians. As such, historians debate the use of “historical theories” and these debates tend to be “more focused [on] and concrete historical projects” and how they develop. Overall, Eley argues that theory is relevant in the study of social history and that it is important in our ability to record and understand the events of the past. He recognizes that theory argues in the present-tense, but sees “the lasting outcomes for historians materialized behind these more visible and sometimes grandstanding polemics, as the more focused and concrete historical projects gradually took shape” with the “ultimate payoff” being “the actual histories they

It is observed that the historical happenings have a great negativity on the face of the society, which is yet to be fixed. And so, the belief behind, digging up the past, is all about ‘’telling the story of human

(An analysis of how the authors Hughes, Clifton and McElroy and how they use history in their works.)

The Zeitgeist approach to history is the “effort to capture the spirit of an age” (p.55). Zeitgeist suggests a common mood during a certain time and place. It emerged as a method in the 19th century as a way for historians to “fathom their feelings and project their own convictions onto the historical characters they wrote about” (p.55).

The Enlightened Archaeologist – an article authored by Jeffrey Hantman and Gary Dunham chronicles Thomas Jefferson’s investigation of the Indian burial mound located on the South Fork of the Rivanna River in the 18th century. The site excavated by Jefferson, however, is no longer visible, most likely due to dissipation by inevitable natural occurrences (I.E. excessive rainfall, flooding rivers, etc.) or human activity such as farming. The “Father of American Archaeology” correctly predicts the latter in his book, Notes on the State of Virginia, in which he states, mounds “…put under cultivation are much reduced in their height, and spread in width, by the plough, and will probably disappear in time” (1787). Fortunately for Archaeologists of the late 20th century (1988) an Indian burial mound identical to that of the one Jefferson described in his book was uncovered just 14 miles from the South Fork of the Rivanna River.

In Telling the Truth About History, three historians discuss how the expanded skepticism and the position that relativism has reduced our capacity to really know and to expound on the past. The book talks about the written work of history and how individuals are battling with the issues of what is “truth.” It likewise examines the post-modernist development and how future historians

The museum believes in a pastiche and populist pathway, in which the history of all people is displayed. Its interactive viewpoint allows this museum to convey history in a way that would be more accessible to its audience. For example, patrons are given the opportunity to record their own history. However, academics, such as Keith Windschuttle, assert that the NMA is a “profound intellectual waste”. He argues that although it displays accurate history, it’s purpose of entertaining its audience detracts from its value, thus creating “waste”. Although Windschuttle’s view may be extreme, it demonstrates the considerable extent to which the tension between academic and popular historians exist.

Gaddis wrote, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, to inform audiences why a historical consciousness should matter to us today. He used knowledge from past historians to portray the method that historical writings represent what cannot replicate. Gaddis worked to describe historical consciousness using visual imagery to express metaphors because science, history, and art all depend on metaphors. The past is something we can never have and through metaphors and representation, Gaddis accurately illustrates the meaning of a historian and how history cannot relive, retrieve or rerun but can only represent it.

In this paper, I will be outlining the costs and benefits of social and technological fixes, and then I will be assessing the use of social and technological fixes of air pollution through the use of automobiles.

When it comes to analyzing our history and seeing what has occurred, the past generation often times have been able to influence the new generation through their experiences. The Cambodian Genocide took place in 1975 where, killing not just thousands but millions of innocent individuals. Moreover, The story “Walking With Living Feet” by Dara Horn consists of a story when she was 15-year-old visiting an extermination and concentration camp located in Poland, where the scenery left by our past generation of the Cambodian genocide leaves her with her eyes widened. Whereas the story called “A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History” by Loung Ung consists of her experience during the Cambodian genocide where she witnessed a bomb, killing her best

This interplays with the title of the book - Silencing The Past - where inaction, exclusion, silences various aspects of the history, rendering individuals, groups and entire cultures - unimportant. This example gets to the heart of how histories are constructed — as Troulliot eloquently put it, “historical narratives are premised on previous understandings, which are premised themselves on the distribution of archival power.”

New historicism was born in the end of 1970s. It is one of the most important theories of literary criticism. It is different from the old historicism. New historicism stressed that the implementation of a comprehensive reading of texts from political power, ideology, cultural hegemony perspectives, formalism. Its research focuses on literature and life, literature and history, literature and power discourse. The New historicism breaks the kind of wordplay deconstruction strategy, making the recovery of historical consciousness becomes an important methodological principles of literary criticism and literary studies. Some scholars hold the view that the new historicism is sure to permeate in all the fields of literature. Main animateurs of new historicism are Stephen Greenblatt and Hayden White. Stephen Greenblatt attached importance to research the self-shaping of renaissance. He regarded literature as the history of reshaping human’s heart. He tended to create cultural poetics of historical context. Hayden White engaged in the history of consciousness in 19th century. He advocated the narrative historical poetic theory.

Rather than focuses on the perspective of a single gender or individual, New Historicism operates on a much broader spectrum, opting to study the history of entire civilizations and cultures. New Historicism theory has its historical roots set in the Renaissance Period, led by the leading spokesperson of the Middle Ages, Shakespeare. The theory makes its first appearance as old historicism, a more primitive form of new historicism where history is a secondary background to the primary background, the text itself. This version was developed into new historicism when historians needed a theory that would allow them to formulate a unified and internally consistent worldview of any given people of culture. Due to its rapid spread, this branch of theory – known as cultural poetics – takes two different forms, its American “New Historian” form and its British “cultural materialism” form. Both feature a call for the revival of historical consciousness, argue that history and literature are both disciplines to be analyzed together, that text should be studied within its appropriate context, and that research allows us to learn people to learn more about its habits, beliefs, and self.

In “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of the Reality”, Hayden White discusses the work of narrativization through annals, chronicles and the history proper, three ways in which the history can be represented to the world Society. With examples provided from as early as middle ages, White explains that annals and the chronicles are more complete in terms of the solidarity and chastity of information compared to the proper history. Even though the annals and the chronicles are the not a complete form of narrativity with events presented in chronological order, while in chronicles there is not clear ending. White suggests that the society perceives the annals and the chronicles to be more reliable rather than the historical records

New Historicism, the American branch of Cultural Poetics, was coined in 1982 by Stephen Greenblatt along with many other scholars believe that one’s culture permeates both texts and critics. Because all of society is inextricably interwoven with the culture of the time in which the texts are produced. So each critic will formulate a unique interpretation for any given text. (Bressler, pp.188)