Originally appeared in the Boston Book Review.
(Date Approximate)
Stephen Greenblatt is the best known exponent of the
approach to literary studies that has been dubbed "new historicism."
Author of "Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture," and
"Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World," his most recent
book, co-written with Catherine Gallagher, is "Practicing New
Historicism."
New historicists linked anecdotes to the disruption of
history as usual, not to its practice: the undisciplined anecdote appealed to
those of us who wanted to interrupt the Big Stories. We sought the very thing
that made anecdotes ciphers to many historians: a vehement and cryptic
particularity that would make one pause or even stumble on the threshold of
history.
Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Gallagher, "Practicing New Historicism"
Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Gallagher, "Practicing New Historicism"
HB: When I try to define new historicism, I think of Elaine
Scarry, the literary critic, studying the crash of TWA Flight 007, and coming
up with a conclusion about the effects of electromagnetic interference that the
FAA has taken seriously. Is that a fair way of describing new historicism?