What is Historical Criticism?
Summary
TLDRThis video delves into the literary criticism approach of historicism, emphasizing the importance of understanding an author's life and the historical context in which a text was written. It highlights the significance of even minor details in reflecting the era's broader themes. The video also touches on postcolonialism and cultural studies, which focus on cultural interactions and representations within literature. Furthermore, it introduces new historicism, which challenges the fixed meanings imposed by history and advocates for a more nuanced dialogue about a text's meaning.
Takeaways
- 📚 Historicism involves studying the author's life and historical context to understand the text's meaning.
- 👤 One key question is how the author's life influenced the text they wrote.
- 🕰️ Another important consideration is how the historical period affected the ideas and themes in the text.
- 🔍 Small details in a text, such as attitudes toward money during the Great Depression, can reflect larger historical ideas.
- ✒️ Christina Rosetti's poetry is an example where her life decisions about religion and love influence her work.
- 🌍 Postcolonialism is a branch of historicism that examines cultural clashes and the impact of one culture dominating another.
- 🎭 Cultural studies focus on how a specific culture's ideas are represented within a text.
- 🧠 New historicism challenges the certainty of historical facts, suggesting that history is shaped by multiple perspectives and not fixed meanings.
- ❓ New historicism asks whether generalizations, like the emotional nature of the Romantic era, are truly representative of all people.
- 🔄 Historicism seeks fixed meaning through history, while new historicism promotes dialogue and multiple voices to understand meaning.
Q & A
What is historicism in literary criticism?
-Historicism in literary criticism is a theory that examines the life and times of an author to understand how historical and biographical contexts influence the meaning of a text.
What are the two key questions historicism asks?
-Historicism asks: 1) Who was the author, and how did their life influence the text? 2) What was the time period in which the text was written, and how did historical events influence the ideas in the text?
Why is it important to look at specific details in a text when using historicism?
-Specific details matter because they can reflect significant ideas from the time period in which the text was written, offering insights into historical and cultural influences.
How does the example of Christina Rosetti relate to historicism?
-Christina Rosetti's life choices, such as breaking off engagements for religious reasons, can be seen reflected in her poetry, which often discusses themes of religion and love. Historicism would explore how her personal experiences influenced these themes.
What is postcolonialism, and how does it relate to historicism?
-Postcolonialism is a specific type of historicism that focuses on the clash of cultures, especially the aftermath of one culture dominating another. It examines how these dynamics are represented or suppressed in literature.
How does cultural studies differ from postcolonialism?
-Cultural studies also examines culture in literature but focuses more on how a specific culture’s ideas are treated and revealed within the text, rather than the broader clash of cultures seen in postcolonialism.
What is new historicism, and how does it challenge traditional historicism?
-New historicism challenges the idea that historical facts are fixed and absolute. It argues that history is subjective and shaped by multiple voices, questioning whether we can truly know historical facts with certainty.
How does new historicism view historical generalizations, such as those from the Romantic Era or the Great Depression?
-New historicism questions generalizations like 'people in the Romantic Era were driven by emotion' or 'people in the Great Depression were frugal,' arguing that such statements are oversimplifications that don’t account for the diversity of experiences and voices.
What is the significance of the phrase 'history goes to the winners' in the context of new historicism?
-The phrase suggests that history is written by those in power, and new historicism emphasizes listening to all voices—big and small—to understand how history can be subjective and multifaceted.
How does historicism help in understanding the meaning of a text?
-Historicism helps by analyzing the historical context and the author's life, showing how these external factors influenced the themes, ideas, and characters within the text.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Historicism in Literary Criticism
This paragraph introduces the concept of historicism in literary criticism, emphasizing the importance of understanding the historical context and the author's life to interpret the meaning of a text. It outlines two key questions to consider: the author's life and how it influenced the text, and the time period in which the work was written and its impact on the text's ideas. The paragraph also highlights the significance of specific details in the text that reflect broader historical themes, using the example of Christina Rosetti's personal experiences influencing her poetry. It concludes by mentioning more complex offshoots of historicism, such as postcolonialism, cultural studies, and new historicism, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of these theories.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Historicism
💡Context
💡Postcolonialism
💡Cultural Studies
💡New Historicism
💡Deconstruction
💡Life and Times
💡Influence
💡Little Details
💡Dialogue
Highlights
Introduction to historicism in literary criticism, focusing on the context of the author's life and times.
Historicism can be simple or complex and requires research into the author's background and historical context.
Key questions for historicism: Who was the author, what was their life like, and how did their life influence the text?
Another important question: What was the time period in which the text was written, and how did it influence the text?
Even small details in the text can reflect major ideas of the time period.
Example of historicism: Literature from the Great Depression might reflect characters being more cautious with money and risk-taking.
Christina Rosetti's poetry reflects her life experiences, such as turning down two engagements for religious reasons, influencing her themes of love and religion.
Postcolonialism is a specific branch of historicism focusing on cultural clashes and the effects of one culture imposing itself on another.
Postcolonialism explores topics like how Native Americans are treated in literature, whether their culture is suppressed or preserved.
Cultural studies similarly examines how specific cultural ideas are treated and revealed within a text.
New historicism is more complex, challenging the fixed meanings that traditional historicism might apply to a text.
New historicism questions the idea of 'facts' in history and emphasizes the importance of listening to multiple voices and perspectives.
History is often written by the victors, so new historicism questions generalities like the emotional nature of the Romantic era or the frugality of people during the Great Depression.
New historicism creates a dialogue about meaning rather than fixing it based on historical facts.
Summary: Whether focusing on how history creates meaning or opens dialogue about meaning, historicism provides valuable perspectives in literary criticism.
Transcripts
and welcome back we're still talking
about literary criticism and this time
we're going to look at historicism and
when talking about where meaning Lies We
are going to talk about the context The
Life and Times of the author now
historicism is one of those theories
that can be very simple or it can be
very complex but it does require a bit
of research and a bit of outside work in
order to use historicism I'm going to
have to look at the background and the
author's life there are two questions
I'm really going to ask ask myself here
number one who was the author and what
was his or her life like and how did
that life influence the text and also
what was the time period in which this
was written and how did the time period
and the the happenings of the day
influence the text and influence the
ideas of the text one thing to keep in
mind as you're doing this is that
specific Details Matter even little
things in the text can really reflect
Big Ideas of the time period so
something that's written during the
Great Depression we might notice
characters being much more careful with
the things that they eat with the way
they spend their money and with taking
risks in general we can comment upon the
way those little details reflect the
time period and the time period is
reflected in those little details a
great example is Christina Rosetti who
turned down two guys she broke off two
engagements in her life because of
religious reasons so when her poetry
starts talking about religion and love
and religion trumping love we wonder how
much of her personal experience is
coming out in her poetry so so in order
to do historicism you've got to sit down
and look up information and then apply
that information to the text however
there are other types of historicism or
other offshoots of historicism which can
be even more complex than that the first
perhaps is
postcolonialism it is looking at history
and it is looking at the author's life
but it's looking at it from a very
specific lens postcolonialism is
interested in cultures and in the way
cultures clash it's interested in the
aftermath and the after effect of one
culture coming and putting itself on top
of another culture so postcolonialism
would be interested in the way Native
Americans are being treated in a piece
of literature for instance and the way
their culture is being preserved or
suppressed even if that's not the main
point of the text you can still look at
it from that perspective cultural
studies is similar in the way it
examines one particular culture's ideas
and the way those ideas are treated and
revealed within a text but the most
complicated of these is probably new
historicism similar to the way that post
feminism challenges the tension between
male and female and whether those two
things can really exist in a
deconstructive way new historicism
challenges the meaning that history
places upon a text it's probably a good
idea right now to go back and review
deconstruction I'll put the link right
here so while historicism takes the
facts of history and applies them to the
text to reveal meaning new historicism
challenges that and says how can we know
those are really facts after all history
is a lot more difficult to nail down
than of first appears you've probably
heard the expression history goes to the
winners so let's take a couple facts
here we might say that people in the
romantic era were driven by emotion we
might say that people during the Great
Depression were
Frugal yes those are generalities but
are they absolutely true were all people
in the Romantic Era automatically
emotional were all people in the Great
Depression automatically Frugal it would
be difficult to say that absolutely more
likely there are very degrees of this
and many different voices so while
historicism fixes meaning and Nails
meaning down using the facts of History
new historicism says those aren't facts
those are opinions and generalities
let's listen to the voices the Little
voices the big voices all the voices and
create dialogue dialogue that can't be
fixed down into meaning so whether
you're interested in the way history
creates meaning or whether you're
interested in the way that history
creates dialogue about the meaning
either way historicism is a good way to
go thanks for watching you can click on
one of the links over here and watch one
of the other literary criticism videos
or click here to subscribe click on the
word literary criticism and you can
watch the introduction video
again I'll see you next time
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