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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page critical analysis that examines how New Historicist criticism works to assist the understanding of the scene; considers whether or not there are aspects that don’t fit; how the work reflects the period it in which it was written and the period it is supposed to represent; the literary or historical influences that help shape the work’s form and content; and finally explores how important historical content is in interpreting the work. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGnhham.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
these texts had successfully withstood the test of time because they could be interpreted and appreciated within the context of prevailing social attitudes and cultural precepts. However, in the
1980s, a group of Berkeley professors, led by Stephen Greenblatt, believed that contemporary readers could gain a greater understanding of these masterpieces by considering the times in which they were
written, and how the authors and their literary expressions were products of their times (Cantor 21). Rather than taking a political overview of literary works, this unique genre of
literary criticism, dubbed New Historicism, focused upon events that bordered on the "mundane," which critics believed offered a far greater insight into the "everyday activities of common people" at the
time (Cantor 21). New Historicism essentially concentrates on two criteria: power and culture, and its proponents maintain that by limiting their consideration to the aristocracy, the monarchy in particular,
the readers can acquire a truer perspective on why the people who defined society acted as they did and how these actions are reflected in a countrys history (New Historicism).
According to Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeares plays, most notably Hamlet, introduced "subversive ideas" that reflected the power struggle that was taking place prior to and following the death of Elizabeth
I (Kelly and Kelly 677). Through certain key scenes in Hamlet, Greenblatt contends that Shakespeare, both literally and figuratively speaking, "pulls back the curtain and allows us to see
what goes on behind the scene in Denmark" (Cantor 21). The famous "closet scene" in Act III, Scene IV, in which Hamlet openly confronts his mother, and in abusive language,
chastises her for her "incestuous" marriage to Claudius, her late husbands brother, in full view of his fathers ghost which is visible only to him, can be scrutinized within the
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