A Critical Note on New Historicism

Introduction: The records of literary criticism and theory are almost as old as literature itself. As known, literary criticism is a sort of mental exercise of evaluating, classifying, analyzing, interpreting, judging, and valuing the literary art. This indicates that criticism also includes creative skill to comprehend the literary artist’s work first, and then put forward one’s valid view. In this sense, it is really ‘meta-literature’. The world’s successful critics and theorists are only the renowned literary figures. As Ben Jonson says that “ To judge of poet is only the faculty of poets”. This means that only a writer can understand the mysteries and mental regions of his/her fellow writers and can respond them aptly and effectively.

Ancient Classical Criticism: The earliest proofs of criticism are found in Greek literature. In the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., Athens was the lap of literary enterprises. So the critical activity was first undertaken by Plato and his eternal disciple Aristotle. This preliminary era of criticism is termed as Hellenic, means Greek, period of criticism. Plato’s Republic is looked upon as the first critical book in which he expresses the ideas regarding the literary and poetic process. It is then Aristotle who in real sense commenced the critical journey still potent and pervasive. His Poetics has proved an immortal foundation stone of criticism for the proceeding centuries, and it has caloured thoughts and talents of almost all the critics and theorists irrespective of language differences. The study of the book is inevitable in every literature and for every literary student and scholar. Aristotle develops for the first time the ideas of mimesis and catharsis which are even today the issues ...

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... cultural consciousness of the writer also. The approach is a compendium of diverse procedures, and its employment in critical enquiry is bound to enlighten the readership, and thereby enrich the process of defining, classifying, and evaluating works of literature. Therefore, there is a scope for spatial and temporal analysis of literary text. The past is revived for the utility of the present.

Works Cited

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(4) Rice, Philip and Patrice Waught, ed. Modern Literary Theory: A Reader. 2nd edition.

London: Edward Arnold, 1989. Print.