ENGD98Y3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: American Literature, Elizabethan Era, New Historicism
Document Summary
Study of literature was first taught only on greek and roman classics; by the end of the 19th century, it was not viewed as entertainment but as a source of moral uplift, history, and biography (p. 17) American literature was not taught till the 1920"s. Old historicism: authors would be studied in terms of their politics, religion, character, and career (rather than studying the the text on it"s own) Historical milieu and competing worlds of monarchy and commonwealth would be noted. Old historicism is now contrasted with a more nuanced, politicized, and socially aware sense of history/literature. Traditional approaches view work according to its mimetic accuracy: representation of real world in literature. Can also explore difficulties of transhistorical interpretation. Literature works used to be classified based on what era or what king/queen they were written under (ex. Elizabethan age), or what periods of literature corresponded to political, national, and royal periods.
