New Historicism in Fictional World: Mapping the Paradigm

Abstract

New Historicism offers a critical way out for the understanding of a literary art work. The trend New Historicism came into existence as an upshot against New Criticism in the similar way as the New Criticism surfaced as a reaction against historical and biographical methods of literary appreciation. The new critics reflect upon a literary text as a self-sufficient body or unit. They are apprehensive of history and take into account the discipline as an opponent of literature. The new historicists--like its British equivalent, may be called cultural materialists--reject the new critical instructions. They see literature and history as a part of vigorous and lively exchange. New Historicism is established on the supposition that a piece of literary work is the consequence of the time, place, and circumstances of its composition. The new historicists, therefore, thrust aside the self-sufficiency of both an artist and work of art and contend that a literary text cannot be read and understood in isolation. They stress that literary texts must be read and deciphered in its biographical, social and historical perspective.