March 26, 2025 - English Studies

“The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan: Summary and Critique

“The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan first appeared in the New Literary History journal in the Spring of 1990 (Vol. 21, No. 3), published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Introduction: “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan

“The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan first appeared in the New Literary History journal in the Spring of 1990 (Vol. 21, No. 3), published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. In this seminal article, Lehan critiques the foundational assumptions of the New Historicism, particularly its reliance on synchronic or spatialized conceptions of time at the expense of diachronic, process-oriented understandings of history. Drawing from thinkers like Foucault and Derrida, Lehan argues that New Historicism, while claiming to eschew grand narratives, paradoxically imposes paradigmatic constructs that suppress temporal progression and ideological development. He emphasizes the political and ideological implications embedded in literary forms, advocating for a renewed engagement with historical process and narrative temporality. Lehan’s essay is crucial to literary theory for exposing the methodological limitations of New Historicism and for urging a return to historicized readings that account for cultural, political, and temporal dynamics in literature.

Summary of “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan

● The Incoherence of New Historicism as a Methodology

Lehan criticizes the New Historicism for lacking an overarching methodological framework. Instead of presenting a unified system of interpretation, it delivers “a series of discrete and diverse readings of literary texts and cultural periods as if these readings were bound by doctrine” (Lehan 536). This absence of methodological unity, according to Lehan, weakens its credibility as a legitimate critical school, particularly in contrast to the more structured approaches of structuralism and Marxism.

● Suppression of Historical Process Through the Synchronic Turn

Lehan’s primary critique centers on New Historicism’s substitution of spatial (synchronic) for temporal (diachronic) readings of history. He sees this as part of a broader postmodern trend that erases the notion of historical continuity. He warns against the “dangers of spatializing time” (Lehan 533) and critiques how synchronic methods “create a disjunction between what the text is saying about history and what the historian is saying about the text” (Lehan 536). This disjunction leads to a flattening of temporality and a loss of historical agency.

● The Shift from Causality to Representation Undermines History

The New Historicism’s Foucauldian roots encourage a retreat from linear, causal history toward representational paradigms. As Lehan observes, in this view, “we do not ‘know’ history but only the paradigms that we bring to the explanation of what we call history” (Lehan 535). By emphasizing tropes, signs, and representations, this approach transforms both history and literature into self-referential systems, severing them from real-world causality and change.

● Postmodern Denial of Historical Meaning as Ideological Erasure

Lehan argues that New Historicism and its theoretical allies—especially Foucault, Derrida, and de Man—engage in a covert ideological act by denying the possibility of historical direction or progress. This denial, ironically, constitutes an ideological position: “no theory of history—or of literary criticism—is neutral but carries within it an ideology” (Lehan 536). The idea that “history has no direction even as it takes the idea of direction as its object of attack” is, for Lehan, a self-contradiction (Lehan 536).

● Structuralist and Poststructuralist Denials of History Are Paradoxically Historicized

Even while denying historical continuity, structuralists and poststructuralists cannot escape historical influence. Lehan contends that “semiotics, for example, depends totally on reading signs in a historical/cultural context” (Lehan 536). He illustrates this with the example of how a burning American flag held radically different meanings before and after the Vietnam War. Thus, any claim to historical neutrality is inherently flawed and historically contingent.

● Derrida and De Man: Freezing Narrative Time into Rhetorical Suspension

Lehan critiques Derrida’s deconstruction of time and meaning as leading to a state of “thought without action” and a suspension of historical agency (Lehan 538). He similarly faults de Man for reducing narrative texts to isolated rhetorical moments: “flux is frozen static by a preoccupation with rhetorical forms of play” (Lehan 539). Both thinkers, in Lehan’s view, sever language from temporality, turning historical and narrative process into inert tropes.

● The Collapse of History into Tropes Leads to Ethical and Political Abdication

According to Lehan, by eliminating time and causality, the New Historicism eliminates the basis for ethical responsibility and political engagement. He asserts, “in denying history, we affirm it, because our denial can never be separated from a historical context” (Lehan 536). The aestheticization of history removes any real-world implications, thereby neutralizing the potential for critique or resistance.

● Case Study: Tropological Misreading of Sister Carrie

Lehan critiques Walter Benn Michaels’s The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism as a representative New Historicist reading that subordinates narrative structure to trope. Michaels interprets Sister Carrie through the lens of money and desire, portraying Carrie as a metaphor for capitalist subjectivity. Lehan challenges this view, arguing that “Carrie’s sense of desire is stimulated first by Chicago… and then by New York” (Lehan 542), indicating an environmental and evolutionary logic rather than a purely tropological one. Michaels, Lehan argues, represses Dreiser’s naturalistic causal sequences, particularly the contrasting trajectories of Carrie and Hurstwood.

● The Ethical Importance of Narrative Sequence and Causality

Lehan insists that time is not reducible to language, and that narrative temporality must be recovered to understand a text’s ethical and political implications. “Time is not language, and language is not time. We can speak about time in language, but this is not identical with the way we experience time” (Lehan 545). He argues that abandoning diachronic narrative in favor of synchronic representation leads to the depoliticization of literature.

● Literary Subgenres as Expressions of Historical Change

Lehan promotes the reading of literary subgenres as historically embedded forms that reflect cultural shifts. He explores how genres like the Gothic, Western, detective novel, and the young-man-from-the-provinces story evolved from specific historical contexts. For example, the Gothic novel encodes anxieties over the decline of the landed estate, while the detective novel arises alongside the growth of the modern city and concerns over urban anonymity (Lehan 546–49).

● Intertextuality as Historicized Dialogue

Lehan redefines intertextuality in historical terms, showing how texts speak to each other across historical moments. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, for instance, inverts the idealism of the Western genre to critique capitalist modernity. “Fitzgerald brilliantly showed how romantic expectation was connected with historical ideals always located in the past” (Lehan 544). Intertextual allusions thus reflect transformations in cultural values, not just rhetorical play.

● Reinstating Historical Process in Literary Studies

In his conclusion, Lehan argues for a return to literary analysis rooted in historical process rather than representational tropes. He calls for recognition of historical transitions—e.g., from feudalism to capitalism, or from industrial to informational economies—and their reflections in literature. He links naturalism and modernism as responses to the same industrial age, noting that “modernism and naturalism are thus two different responses to the same historical moment” (Lehan 553).

Final Assessment

Lehan’s essay is both a sustained critique of the theoretical underpinnings of the New Historicism and a proposal for restoring historical temporality, causality, and ideological engagement to literary criticism. He insists that narrative and historical process matter—not just as thematic content but as ideological form. He urges critics to “restore process to our use of history” (Lehan 533), anchoring literary study once again in the dynamic interplay between form, temporality, and political culture.

Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan

Term/Concept	Meaning	Usage in the Article
New Historicism	A literary theory that emphasizes the cultural, social, and political contexts of texts, often using historical documents alongside literary works.	Criticized by Lehan for lacking a unified methodology and for collapsing historical sequence into tropological readings of texts.
Synchronic Time	Time viewed as static and spatial, focusing on structures and paradigms rather than historical sequence.	Critiqued for replacing narrative flow and causality with static representations, leading to a loss of historical process and political meaning.
Diachronic Time	Time understood as linear, causal, and unfolding—emphasizing sequence and historical change.	Advocated by Lehan as essential for understanding literary narratives and their political and historical dimensions.
Representation	The act of depicting or interpreting reality through rhetorical or symbolic forms, often emphasizing language over material context.	Seen as a dominant approach in New Historicism that flattens history into rhetorical tropes, thereby aestheticizing and depoliticizing texts.
Paradigm	A conceptual framework or model used to interpret historical and cultural data, often seen as replacing linear narratives.	Used to describe Foucault’s “epistemes” which, Lehan argues, deny continuity and process by treating history as a series of disconnected conceptual shifts.
Tropological Reading	An interpretive method that focuses on figurative language, symbols, and rhetorical devices in texts.	Criticized by Lehan for reducing complex historical narratives to isolated metaphors or signs, thereby ignoring time and causality.
Episteme	Foucault’s term for an overarching knowledge structure that defines the conditions of thought in a given era.	Questioned by Lehan for suggesting abrupt historical ruptures and lacking explanation for transitions between paradigms.
Ideology	A system of ideas that shapes cultural, social, or political beliefs, often unconsciously embedded in narratives and historical accounts.	Lehan argues that ideology is inherent in concepts of time and representation and that postmodern critics often displace ideology while inadvertently reaffirming it.

Contribution of “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan to Literary Theory/Theories

1. Critique of New Historicism

Identifies methodological incoherence: Lehan argues that New Historicism lacks a unifying methodology, offering “a series of discrete and diverse readings” rather than a coherent theoretical framework (p. 536).
Challenges synchronic bias: He criticizes New Historicism’s tendency to favor synchronic (spatial) readings, which freeze historical narrative and suppress diachronic (temporal) movement (p. 538).

Warns against aestheticizing history: Lehan asserts that turning history into tropes or representations, as in the Berkeley school, robs texts of political agency and historical process (pp. 540–541).

2. Contribution to Historicism and Diachronic Literary Analysis

Reasserts process and narrative in history: Lehan calls for restoring diachronic time to literary criticism, arguing that history involves “a flow of time” that representation-based theories often ignore (p. 535).

Links ideology to temporality: He posits that how we conceptualize time reflects ideological commitments, even when denied (p. 536).
Advocates historical reading of genres: Through examples like Sister Carrie, The Great Gatsby, and gothic novels, he shows how subgenres are tied to historical shifts, rejecting the ahistorical flattening of textual meaning (pp. 541–547).

3. Response to Structuralism and Poststructuralism

Critiques structuralist universalism: Lehan finds Levi-Strauss’s belief in universal mental structures as undermining historical difference, making time and culture redundant (p. 537).
Challenges Derridean suspension: He argues that Derrida’s concept of deferral and deconstruction leads to a denial of agency and ethical time, resulting in a “world robbed of process and agency” (p. 538).
Demystifies de Man’s rhetoric: Lehan critiques de Man for collapsing narrative meaning by focusing on isolated rhetorical moments, thereby repressing historical and political context (p. 539).

4. Engagement with Marxist and Materialist Theory

Emphasizes historical materialism: Through critique of works like Walter Benn Michaels’ The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism, Lehan exposes how tropological readings ignore economic and material determinants (pp. 540–543).
Connects literary forms to socio-economic shifts: He traces the emergence of genres (e.g., detective fiction, Western, naturalist novel) to transitions such as urbanization, capitalism, and empire, aligning with a Marxist view of base-superstructure (pp. 546–550).

5. Revisions to Periodization and Literary History

Replaces static periods with historical process: Lehan suggests abandoning rigid literary period labels in favor of understanding “literary naturalism” and “modernism” as responses to the same socio-economic realities (p. 552).
Intertextuality as historicized dialogue: He reframes intertextuality not as infinite textual play but as historically situated dialogues among writers and movements (p. 551).

Examples of Critiques Through “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan

Literary Work	Theoretical Framework from Lehan	Explanation of the Critique
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser	Critique of Representational Tropes; Defense of Narrative Causality and Diachronic Time	Lehan challenges Walter Benn Michaels’ reading that reduces Sister Carrie to a trope of capitalist desire. He argues that this suppresses Dreiser’s naturalistic structure, which depends on cause and effect and environmental determinism. The novel’s temporal sequence and ideological critique are essential.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald	Temporal Process and Historical Unfolding; Opposition to Rhetorical Suspension	Lehan resists poststructuralist interpretations that freeze Gatsby at the level of language and metaphor. He emphasizes the novel’s narrative flow and historical critique of American romantic ideals, capitalist decay, and urban alienation through diachronic storytelling.
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot	Cyclical Historical Time; Critique of Spatialization of Temporal Events	Lehan interprets Eliot’s “falling towers” motif as part of a cyclical view of history, showing imperial decline. He argues that reading Eliot purely in synchronic terms (as some new historicists do) misses the poem’s embedded historical consciousness and critique of cultural entropy.
The Virginian by Owen Wister and Shane by Jack Schaefer	Historicized Subgenre Analysis; Western as Cultural Encoding of Social and Class Transition	Lehan treats the Western as a historically determined subgenre. He shows how both novels reflect changing attitudes toward land, masculinity, and class—embodying ideologies of frontier conquest, natural aristocracy, and American exceptionalism. These texts mirror historical changes in national identity.

Criticism Against “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan

Overgeneralization of Postmodern Thinkers:
Lehan tends to group together disparate figures such as Foucault, Derrida, and de Man under a single critical lens, potentially oversimplifying their distinct methodologies and philosophical nuances.
Excessive Nostalgia for Diachronic Models:
His strong preference for diachronic history and narrative progression may seem nostalgic or conservative, potentially neglecting the productive insights offered by synchronic or spatial approaches to cultural texts.
Limited Engagement with Diversity in New Historicism:
Lehan critiques the “representation school” primarily based on examples like Walter Benn Michaels and Foucault, but this does not fully represent the variety of practices and innovations within the New Historicist movement.

Underestimation of Tropological Critique:
While he warns against reducing historical texts to tropes, some may argue that Lehan underestimates the critical power of tropological and rhetorical analysis to uncover ideology and contradiction in historical discourse.
Insufficient Consideration of Language and Power:
Lehan favors process over discourse and may downplay how language itself produces historical consciousness and is inseparable from power structures—as emphasized by Foucault and others.
Reassertion of Grand Narratives:
His insistence on historical continuity and developmental models can be critiqued for reasserting teleological or totalizing grand narratives, which postmodern and poststructuralist theorists deliberately resist.

Neglect of Marginalized Voices:
The article focuses heavily on canonical texts and dominant ideologies, with little engagement with how New Historicism has been applied to issues of race, gender, colonialism, and class from subaltern perspectives.

Representative Quotations from “The Theoretical Limits of the New Historicism” by Richard Lehan with Explanation

Quotation	Page	Explanation
“I could just as well have entitled it ‘The Consequences of the Synchronic—or the Dangers of Spatializing Time.'”	533	Lehan introduces his critique of New Historicism by suggesting that its focus on synchronic (static) time over diachronic (sequential) time distorts historical understanding, a central theme of his essay.
“Since the seventeenth century our ways of talking about history have come off of three dominant models.”	534	He outlines three historical paradigms—Enlightenment, Romantic, and Postmodern—to contextualize New Historicism within a broader evolution of historical thought, emphasizing its postmodern roots.
“Much of the new historicism assumes that history has no direction even as it takes the idea of direction as its object of attack.”	535	This highlights Lehan’s argument that New Historicism’s rejection of historical progression is itself ideological, contradicting its claim to neutrality.
“What I am suggesting is that the direction we believe time takes has a political quotient to it, even (perhaps especially) when such a belief is denied.”	535	Lehan asserts that denying historical direction (as New Historicism does) is a political act, embedding ideology in its methodology despite its claims otherwise.
“In denying history, we affirm it, because our denial can never be separated from a historical context.”	536	He argues that attempts to escape history (e.g., through synchronic analysis) are inherently historical, as they are shaped by the moment of their articulation.
“Foucault’s epistemes replace narrative line, become ‘diagnoses’ or contexts for historical discourse, and hence function much like Kuhn’s paradigms.”	539	Lehan critiques Foucault’s static epistemes, adopted by New Historicism, for lacking narrative continuity, reducing history to disconnected snapshots rather than a process.
“What Michaels does is to give us a postmodern Sister Carrie at the expense of the realistic/naturalistic text.”	542	Using Walter Benn Michaels’s reading of Dreiser’s novel, Lehan illustrates how New Historicism’s tropological focus distorts the text’s historical and naturalistic essence.
“The new historicism, firmly modeled on Foucault, is thus fraught with its own problematics.”	543	He questions the coherence and subjectivity of New Historicism’s methodology, suggesting it cannot escape the historical biases it seeks to avoid.
“Time is not language, and language is not time. We can speak about time in language, but this is not identical with the way we experience time.”	545	Lehan emphasizes the distinction between linguistic representation and lived temporal experience, arguing that New Historicism’s focus on language overlooks narrative time’s role in texts.
“Once the idea of literary periods gives way to the idea of historical process, we can then see the connection between such literary and cultural movements.”	552	He advocates for a process-oriented approach to history, linking literary forms (e.g., naturalism, modernism) to cultural shifts, countering New Historicism’s static view.

“In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy: A Critical Analysis

“In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy first appeared in 1915 and was later included in his collection Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917).

Introduction: “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

“In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy first appeared in 1915 and was later included in his collection Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917). Written during the turmoil of World War I, the poem presents a quiet but powerful meditation on the endurance of everyday life despite the sweeping destruction of war. Hardy emphasizes that while dynasties fall and wars are waged, ordinary human experiences—plowing a field, whispering lovers—continue unaffected. This is captured in the lines, “Yet this will go onward the same / Though Dynasties pass.” The poem gained popularity for its calm defiance against the chaos of war, offering a comforting reminder that life’s small, enduring rhythms outlast even the grandest historical upheavals.

Text: “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

Only a man harrowing clods

In a slow silent walk

With an old horse that stumbles and nods

Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame

From the heaps of couch-grass;

Yet this will go onward the same

Though Dynasties pass.

III

Yonder a maid and her wight

Come whispering by:

War’s annals will cloud into night

Ere their story die.

Annotations: “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

Stanza / Line	Annotation (Simple English)	Literary Devices
Stanza I
“Only a man harrowing clods”	A man is calmly plowing the land in a field.	Imagery – vivid visual of rural life.
“In a slow silent walk”	His pace is quiet and slow, showing peace.	Alliteration – ‘s’ sounds enhance the calm tone.
“With an old horse that stumbles and nods”	The horse is old and sleepy, adding to the stillness.	Personification – the horse is described as if it’s tired like a human.
“Half asleep as they stalk”	Both man and horse move slowly, almost drowsily.	Tone – peaceful, reflective.
Stanza II
“Only thin smoke without flame”	Light smoke is rising from burned weeds—quiet, ongoing life.	Symbolism – quiet survival of daily life.
“From the heaps of couch-grass”	He’s burning unwanted grass, part of the farm routine.	Imagery – rural detail.
“Yet this will go onward the same”	Life like this will continue no matter what happens globally.	Repetition / Enjambment – Emphasizes continuity.
“Though Dynasties pass”	Even great empires will fall, but simple life remains.	Juxtaposition – contrast between great political change and everyday normalcy.
Stanza III
“Yonder a maid and her wight / Come whispering by”	A young couple passes by, quietly talking—representing love and human connection.	Imagery – romantic, human scene; Archaic diction – “wight” is an old word for man.
“War’s annals will cloud into night”	Records of war will eventually be forgotten.	Metaphor – war’s history fading like night.
“Ere their story die”	The couple’s love story will outlive war history.	Irony / Emphasis – Personal love endures more than war in memory.
Whole poem	Hardy shows how simple life and human connection outlast empires and wars.	Tone – calm, anti-war; Structure – three stanzas reflect simplicity and timelessness.

Literary And Poetic Devices: “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

Device	Example from Poem	Explanation
Alliteration	“slow silent walk”	Repetition of the ‘s’ sound emphasizes quietness and a sense of calm.
Allusion	“Though Dynasties pass”	Refers broadly to historical empires and political regimes, suggesting their eventual fall.
Anaphora	“Only a man… / Only thin smoke…”	Repetition of “Only” at the beginning of two stanzas highlights the simplicity of daily life.
Archaic Diction	“wight”	An old-fashioned word for a man, giving the poem a timeless or folk-like tone.
Assonance	“Though Dynasties pass”	The repetition of the vowel sounds ‘o’ and ‘a’ adds rhythm and harmony to the line.
Contrast	“War’s annals… their story”	Contrasts war records with a love story, showing the latter’s greater emotional significance.
Enjambment	“Yet this will go onward the same / Though Dynasties pass.”	The line runs on without pause, reflecting continuity and unbroken life.
Imagery	“A man harrowing clods… an old horse that stumbles”	Visual details create a vivid picture of farming life.
Irony	“War’s annals will cloud into night / Ere their story die.”	It’s ironic that love outlasts what history considers more ‘important’—war records.
Juxtaposition	“Yet this will go onward… / Though Dynasties pass.”	Places enduring rural life beside fleeting political power.
Lyricism	Whole poem	The gentle, flowing language and meditative tone give it a lyrical, poetic quality.
Metaphor	“War’s annals will cloud into night”	Compares war’s historical record to a night sky fading from memory.
Minimalism	Whole poem	Sparse, focused language expresses deep themes with few words.
Mood	Whole poem	The mood is calm, reflective, and quietly resistant to war’s destruction.
Parallelism	“Only a man… / Only thin smoke…”	Similar sentence structures give rhythm and emphasize the ordinariness of the scenes.
Personification	“old horse that stumbles and nods”	The horse is given human-like traits, enhancing the sense of tiredness and routine.
Repetition	“Only”	Repeating this word underscores the apparent ordinariness of what is actually deeply meaningful.
Symbolism	“thin smoke without flame”	Symbolizes quiet, enduring life without dramatic action—like survival amidst chaos.
Tone	Whole poem	Calm, understated, anti-war tone expressing reverence for common life.
Understatement	“Only a man harrowing clods…”	Describes a significant, enduring act in overly simple terms, highlighting its quiet importance.

Themes: “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

The Endurance of Everyday Life
In “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy, the poem highlights the quiet persistence of ordinary life despite the turbulence of historical events. Hardy paints a tranquil rural scene with the lines, “Only a man harrowing clods / In a slow silent walk / With an old horse that stumbles and nods,” emphasizing the stability and continuity of agricultural labor. This enduring image of a farmer and his horse, unchanged and unaffected by external conflict, symbolizes the timeless nature of human routine. Hardy suggests that while empires may fall and wars erupt, the simple rhythm of daily life carries on undisturbed, revealing what he believes is truly lasting.

The Futility and Ephemerality of War
In “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy, war is portrayed as fleeting and ultimately forgettable when compared to the ongoing flow of ordinary life and personal memory. In the poem’s final stanza, Hardy states, “War’s annals will cloud into night / Ere their story die,” implying that the official records of war will fade into darkness before the stories of everyday people do. By using the metaphor “cloud into night,” he evokes the sense that war’s legacy is transient, easily lost in time. This theme challenges the glorification of warfare by positioning it as less significant than the endurance of quiet, personal experiences.

The Power of Love and Human Connection

In “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy, love and human intimacy are shown to be more lasting and meaningful than national conflicts. The final stanza introduces “a maid and her wight / Come whispering by,” a gentle image of a couple lost in their own world. The simplicity of this moment, captured in the act of whispering, reflects the quiet strength of human connection. Hardy argues that while wars may dominate headlines and historical records, it is love and shared human experience that truly endure. The poem suggests that such emotional bonds outlive even the most dramatic events in history.

Nature’s Timelessness and Indifference to Human Conflict
In “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy, nature is depicted as calm, continuous, and indifferent to human struggles. In the second stanza, Hardy writes, “Only thin smoke without flame / From the heaps of couch-grass; / Yet this will go onward the same / Though Dynasties pass.” This imagery of light smoke rising from burning grass is symbolic of nature’s unbroken rhythm. The natural world remains untouched by political turmoil, and its cycles persist regardless of dynasties or wars. Hardy uses this theme to emphasize a broader, humbling truth: nature’s processes are far more permanent than human attempts at control and power.

Literary Theories and “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

Literary Theory	Application to the Poem	Reference from Poem
New Historicism	Examines the poem in the context of World War I, showing how historical events shape its meaning.	“War’s annals will cloud into night / Ere their story die.” – reflects war’s fading impact.
Marxist Criticism	Highlights the value of the working class and labor over ruling powers and dynasties.	“Only a man harrowing clods…” – the laborer is central, not kings or elites.
Humanism	Emphasizes the dignity, value, and emotional depth of common people over historical grandeur.	“a maid and her wight / Come whispering by” – elevates personal love above war.
Ecocriticism	Focuses on nature’s calm continuity and its detachment from human conflicts.	“Yet this will go onward the same / Though Dynasties pass.” – nature outlasts politics.

Critical Questions about “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

How does “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” reflect Hardy’s response to war?
“In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy reflects a deeply pacifist and human-centered response to the devastation of war. Instead of directly describing the battlefield or glorifying heroism, Hardy turns attention to a quiet, rural setting where a man is seen “harrowing clods / In a slow silent walk / With an old horse that stumbles and nods.” This peaceful image stands in stark contrast to the violence and chaos of war, subtly suggesting that the essence of life is not found in destruction, but in the resilience of daily labor. Hardy minimizes the significance of war by writing, “War’s annals will cloud into night / Ere their story die,” implying that even the grandest military histories will fade before the simple love stories of ordinary people. The poem offers a quiet resistance to war, presenting the continuity of human life and love as far more meaningful than political conflict.

What role does nature play in “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'”?

Nature in “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy is portrayed as an enduring, indifferent force that continues unaffected by human wars and political upheavals. In the second stanza, Hardy describes a calm agricultural scene: “Only thin smoke without flame / From the heaps of couch-grass; / Yet this will go onward the same / Though Dynasties pass.” The smoke, though seemingly insignificant, becomes a powerful symbol of continuity and stability. It suggests that natural processes and rural routines persist no matter what happens in the world of kings and empires. Nature, for Hardy, is both a setting and a moral compass—it provides a backdrop that subtly rebukes human vanity and ambition by simply existing, unaffected. This perspective aligns with his broader belief in the insignificance of human affairs when viewed in the context of the natural world.

How is love represented in “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” and why is it important?
In “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy, love is portrayed as intimate, enduring, and more meaningful than the grand narratives of war and political power. The third stanza introduces “a maid and her wight / Come whispering by,” a tender moment of connection between two young lovers. The image is soft, understated, and deeply human. Hardy elevates this love story above the official histories of conflict, asserting that “War’s annals will cloud into night / Ere their story die.” In this reversal of values, personal affection and emotional connection are shown to have a lasting legacy that outshines the supposedly more ‘important’ events recorded in history books. Love here becomes a quiet defiance—a form of resilience and continuity that outlives the destruction wrought by war.

What does the structure and style of “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” contribute to its meaning?
The structure and style of “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy enhance the poem’s central themes of endurance, simplicity, and calm defiance. The poem is composed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) with a regular ABAB rhyme scheme, which contributes to a rhythmic, stable tone that mirrors the steady continuation of life described in the verses. The use of plain diction—words like “man,” “horse,” “maid,” and “couch-grass”—reinforces the theme of ordinariness. Hardy deliberately avoids elevated or dramatic language, which reflects his resistance to the grandeur typically associated with war poetry. The quiet, restrained style underscores his message: that simple lives and quiet routines possess a depth and permanence far greater than the fleeting turbulence of war and empire.

Literary Works Similar to “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

“Grass” by Carl Sandburg
Like Hardy’s poem, it reflects on the aftermath of war through natural imagery, showing how nature quietly absorbs human conflict.

“The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke
This poem, like Hardy’s, grapples with the meaning of war and national identity, though from a more idealistic lens.
“As the Team’s Head-Brass” by Edward Thomas
Set in the English countryside during WWI, it mirrors Hardy’s contrast between rural life and the distant impact of war.
“Reconciliation” by Walt Whitman
Both poems meditate on the cost of war and emphasize enduring human values over political divisions.

“The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy
Another of Hardy’s own anti-war poems, it shares a similar tone of quiet irony and explores the futility of killing in war.

Representative Quotations of “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations'” by Thomas Hardy

Quotation	Context	Theoretical Perspective
“Only a man harrowing clods”	Describes a farmer plowing a field—ordinary life during wartime.	Marxist Criticism – Focus on working-class endurance over elite history.
“In a slow silent walk”	Reinforces the calm, measured pace of rural labor.	Formalist Criticism – Sound and rhythm reinforce tone.
“With an old horse that stumbles and nods”	Personifies the horse to emphasize weariness and age.	Humanist Criticism – Human and animal connection in routine life.
“Only thin smoke without flame”	Suggests subtle, continuous life amidst destruction.	Ecocriticism – Nature’s quiet resilience amid war.
“Yet this will go onward the same”	Rural life continues despite historical upheaval.	New Historicism – Poem as response to wartime instability.
“Though Dynasties pass.”	Highlights the fall of empires compared to enduring common life.	Postcolonial Criticism – Collapse of imperial power.
“Yonder a maid and her wight / Come whispering by:”	A tender, intimate moment between two lovers.	Romanticism / Humanism – Love and connection transcend conflict.
“War’s annals will cloud into night”	War’s history will be forgotten with time.	Deconstruction – Challenges fixed value in historical narratives.
“Ere their story die.”	Suggests love stories last longer than war records.	Reader-Response Theory – Personal connection shapes lasting meaning.
Entire poem’s structure (3 quatrains, plain diction)	Simple, lyrical form reinforces message of endurance and peace.	Formalism / Stylistics – Simplicity mirrors thematic intent.

“New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters: Summary and Critique

“New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism and Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters first appeared in 2000 in the journal New Literary History.

Introduction: “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters

“New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism and Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters first appeared in 2000 in the journal New Literary History. In this article, Pieters provides a critical intervention into New Historicism by situating it within the broader discourse of postmodern historiography. Drawing parallels between the literary-critical practices of Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose and the historical theories of thinkers like Frank Ankersmit and Hayden White, Pieters argues that New Historicism should be viewed not as a departure from historicism, but as a postmodern evolution of it. He identifies two key currents within postmodern historiography—narrativism (epitomized by Foucault’s discursive archaeology) and heterology (inspired by de Certeau’s psychoanalytic and “other-oriented” historiography)—and shows how Greenblatt’s work partakes in both. Through his close analysis of Greenblatt’s strategic use of historical anecdotes, Pieters highlights how New Historicism vacillates between reconstructing historical discourse (narrativism) and revealing history’s unconscious repressions (heterology). Importantly, he critiques Greenblatt’s tendency to reject the label “historicism” altogether, arguing instead that New Historicism, in its nuanced rejection of naive realism and emphasis on contingency, is a “truer” form of historicism. The article is pivotal in literary theory as it provides a robust theoretical scaffolding for understanding the postmodern roots and epistemological stakes of New Historicist criticism.

Summary of “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters

🔍 New Historicism as a Postmodern Historiographical Method

Pieters establishes that New Historicism shares theoretical ground with postmodern historiography, especially the narrativist historicism of Frank Ankersmit and the heterological theory of Michel de Certeau.

He takes Catherine Belsey’s remark that “at its most brilliant, its most elegant, New Historicism is characteristically postmodern” (p. 21) as a springboard for his analysis.

⚖️ Rejection of Traditional Historicism

New historicists like Greenblatt and Montrose repudiate the objectivist and positivist assumptions of earlier historicists, who viewed history as a unified, knowable monolith.

Greenblatt critiques traditional historicism’s adherence to three flawed beliefs: deterministic views of history, value-neutrality, and a reverence for the past:

“Most of the writing labelled new historicist… has set itself resolutely against each of these positions” (Greenblatt, Learning to Curse, p. 164; quoted p. 23).

📚 Terminological Confusion: Historicism vs. Historism

Pieters notes that Greenblatt conflates Hegelian teleological historicism with Rankean empiricism, though they are historiographically distinct.
Frank Ankersmit recommends labeling the latter “historism,” reserving “historicism” for speculative philosophies of history like Hegel’s (Aesthetic Politics, p. 375-6; cited p. 23).

🧩 Narrativist Historicism: Constructing, Not Discovering, Coherence

According to Ankersmit, narrativist historians do not uncover pre-existing coherence in history, but rather construct it through discourse:

“Narrativists… believe that the historian’s language does not reflect a coherence… in the past itself, but only gives coherence to the past” (History and Tropology, p. 155; quoted p. 26).

📖 Greenblatt’s Dialogical History: Listening to the Past’s Multiple Voices

Greenblatt sees history as a dialogue both within the past and between past and present, echoing Gadamer’s hermeneutics:

“While speaking about the past, [historians] also talk to it” (p. 25).

🔁 Two Strands of Postmodern Historicism: Narrativism and Heterology

Pieters defines narrativism (Foucault) as focused on discourse and systems of knowledge; it analyzes how epochs construct meaning through discursive formations.
Heterology (Certeau) is more psychoanalytic, concerned with the repressed “other” of history—that which resists representation:

“The repressed… returns in our descriptions of [the past]” (p. 28).

📚 Greenblatt as Both Narrativist and Heterologist

Greenblatt’s method combines both approaches via his distinctive use of historical anecdotes.
These anecdotes function both as discursive nodes (narrativist) and as sites of estrangement and alterity (heterological):

“The anecdote both serves as the central locus of a culture’s dispersive nature… and as the site where history’s other can be brought to the fore” (p. 29).

🔬 The Anecdote: Bridge Between Narrative and the Real

Anecdotes provide textual entry points into historical energies and subjectivities, yet their connection to reality is constructed, not mimetic:

“[The] anecdote… exceeds its literary status… [and] uniquely refers to the real” (Joel Fineman, quoted p. 37).

Greenblatt’s term “social energy” captures this effect: moments that transmit affect across time and social structures, though their origin is not empirically fixed:

“The term implies something measurable, yet I cannot provide a convenient and reliable formula… it is manifested in the capacity to produce… collective experiences” (Shakespearean Negotiations, p. 6; quoted p. 33).

🎭 Cultural Zones and Discursive Systems

In Shakespearean Negotiations, Greenblatt expands on how cultural “zones” like religion, theater, or politics regulate discourse and meaning.
Influenced by Foucault, these zones are not discrete but interconnected through the circulation of symbolic materials and power:

“Zones… are societal spaces whose specificity is functionally determined by the discourses that are proper to them” (p. 32).

📡 Resonance and Wonder: Dual Function of Cultural Artifacts

Greenblatt theorizes two aesthetic-historical effects:
- Resonance: cultural artifacts reflect historical systems.
- Wonder: they also provoke estrangement and attention to singularity.

“It is the function of the new historicism continually to renew the marvelous at the heart of the resonant” (Learning to Curse, p. 181; quoted p. 36).

🪞 The Risk of Regression: Historicism’s Return?

Pieters warns that Greenblatt’s use of “social energy” may unintentionally reintroduce metaphysical coherence, akin to traditional historicism’s “historical idea”:

“Anecdotes will no longer serve as scenes of dispersal, but as… manifestations of social energy” (p. 34).

Conclusion: A Hybrid Heuristic Practice

Pieters concludes that Greenblatt’s method is best seen as a hybrid, drawing strength from both narrativist and heterological postmodern historiography.
The tension between discursive construction and yearning for the real is not a flaw but a heuristic asset, grounding New Historicism’s critical potential.

Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters

Concept	Definition / Description	Key References / Examples
New Historicism	A literary-critical method that emphasizes the historicity of texts and the textuality of history, rejecting traditional objectivist views of historical truth.	Associated with Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose; rooted in poststructuralism and critical of older historicist methods (Pieters, p. 21–22).
Postmodern Historicism	A form of historiography that recognizes the contingency and constructed nature of historical narratives.	Coined by Frank Ankersmit and linked with Hayden White, it emphasizes the discursive (narrativist) or psychoanalytical (heterological) structuring of historical writing.
Narrativism	A historiographical approach that views history as narrative construction, not factual reproduction.	Draws from Ankersmit and Foucault; emphasizes coherence via discourse rather than “real” historical events (Pieters, p. 24–25).
Heterology	A method that focuses on the “other” of history—what is repressed, silenced, or excluded in historical narratives.	Based on Michel de Certeau’s psychoanalytic historiography; explores history’s absences through anecdote and textual margins (Pieters, p. 27–28).
Historicism vs. Historism	Distinction between speculative, teleological philosophies of history (Historicism) and empirical, document-based approaches (Historism).	Pieters critiques Greenblatt’s conflation of these; Ankersmit proposes using “Historism” for Ranke and “Historicism” for Hegel (Pieters, p. 23).
Double Transparency Postulate	The traditional view that texts transparently reflect historical reality and authorial intent.	Critiqued by postmodern historiographers; replaced with focus on discursive production (Ankersmit, in Pieters, p. 24).
Historical Idea (Historische Idee)	The coherent concept through which a historical period or entity is interpreted, giving it structure and meaning.	Originates in von Humboldt; reinterpreted by Ankersmit as a discursive projection rather than a real feature of the past (Pieters, p. 26).
Cultural Dispositif	A Foucauldian term for the complex network of texts, practices, and institutions that form a discursive system.	Greenblatt adopts this in Renaissance Self-Fashioning and Shakespearean Negotiations to analyze cultural production (Pieters, p. 30–31).
Social Energy	The symbolic and affective power that certain cultural objects or texts exert within a historical society.	Greenblatt uses this to explain shared emotional reactions to texts and practices (Pieters, p. 33).
Anecdotal Heuristics	The method of beginning analysis with historical anecdotes to reveal cultural mechanisms and contradictions.	Central to Greenblatt’s style; serves both narrativist (structural) and heterological (disruptive) functions (Pieters, p. 31–38).
Resonance and Wonder	Aesthetic and interpretive terms used to balance contextual understanding with textual uniqueness in literary analysis.	Pieters discusses Greenblatt’s essay “Resonance and Wonder” as exemplifying this dialectic (Pieters, p. 36–37).
Dialogue with the Dead	The idea that historical inquiry involves a metaphorical conversation between the historian and figures of the past.	Inspired by Machiavelli and developed by Greenblatt, highlighting the historian’s involvement in the construction of meaning (Pieters, p. 25, 34).
Effet de réel	A rhetorical device that produces a “reality effect” in narrative, simulating direct contact with historical reality.	Referenced via Barthes; used to critique the illusion that anecdotes give unmediated access to the past (Pieters, p. 38).

Contribution of “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters to Literary Theory/Theories

🔍 1. Postmodern Historiography

Bridges literary criticism and historiographical theory by aligning New Historicism with the postmodern critique of historical objectivity.
Draws directly on Frank Ankersmit’s “narrativist historicism”, showing that New Historicism shares postmodern skepticism about historical facts and emphasizes discursive construction (Pieters, p. 24).

“[N]ew historicism can indeed be regarded as the literary-historical counterpart to recent, ‘postmodern’ developments in the theory of history” (Pieters, p. 22).

🧩 2. New Historicism

Clarifies the theoretical ambiguity in Stephen Greenblatt’s rejection of the term “historicism”, revealing that Greenblatt’s approach aligns more with a revised, postmodern form of historicism rather than rejecting it outright (Pieters, p. 23).

Identifies dual methodologies within New Historicism:
- Narrativism (influenced by Foucault)
- Heterology (inspired by de Certeau)
  → This dual typology deepens understanding of New Historicist practice (Pieters, p. 27).

“To fully characterize Greenblatt’s reading method, we do well to distinguish between two variants of postmodern historicism” (Pieters, p. 21).

🗣️ 3. Discourse Theory / Foucauldian Criticism

Shows how Foucauldian “archaeology” and “genealogy” inform New Historicist methods of cultural analysis (Pieters, p. 29–30).

Introduces the concept of “cultural dispositifs”, systems of discursive and institutional formation, rooted in Foucault’s theory, as central to Greenblatt’s method.

“Such discursive systems resemble what Michel Foucault has termed cultural ‘dispositifs'” (Pieters, p. 30).

🧠 4. Psychoanalytic Historiography (via Michel de Certeau)

Emphasizes the role of repression and the unconscious in history-writing, grounding the heterological variant of New Historicism in psychoanalytic theory.
Certeau’s “return of the repressed” is linked to Greenblatt’s use of anecdotes as sites where the silenced or marginalized resurfaces (Pieters, p. 27–28, 35).

“The repressed… returns in our descriptions of it. The repressed… is there in its absence” (Pieters, p. 28).

📖 5. Narrative Theory / Theory of Representation

Applies the “historical idea” (from Humboldt via Ankersmit) as a literary-critical tool for interpreting Greenblatt’s concept of self-fashioning as a narrative function rather than a historical “fact” (Pieters, p. 26).
Shows how historical narratives do not discover structures in the past but impose them, reinforcing poststructuralist views of narrative mediation (Pieters, p. 25).

“Narrativists believe that the historian’s language… gives coherence to the past” (Pieters, p. 25).

🎭 6. Cultural Materialism / Cultural Poetics

Deepens cultural materialist theory by detailing how social energy—as used by Greenblatt—circulates between cultural zones and texts, shaping meaning (Pieters, p. 33).

Emphasizes that literary texts are active agents in cultural discourse, not passive reflections of social reality.

“[Cultural] zones are societal spaces… whose specificity is functionally determined by the discourses that are proper to them” (Pieters, p. 32).

🧵 7. Rhetoric and Aesthetics

Reframes Greenblatt’s aesthetic terms “resonance” and “wonder” as rhetorical devices that negotiate between historical context and textual autonomy (Pieters, p. 36).
Connects “social energy” to rhetorical traditions via Aristotle’s energeia, reviving classical poetics within a postmodern historiographical frame (Pieters, p. 33–34).

“Its origins lie in rhetoric rather than physic… the metaphor refers to the power of language to cause in the reader ‘a stir to the mind'” (Pieters, p. 33).

✍️ 8. Critical Hermeneutics

Applies Gadamerian insight about the historian’s historicity and the dialogical nature of understanding the past (Pieters, p. 22, 25).
Strengthens literary hermeneutics by recognizing that all readings are historically situated dialogues rather than objective reconstructions.

“[W]hile speaking about the past, [historians] also talk to it” (Pieters, p. 25).

Examples of Critiques Through “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters

Literary Work	Critique Approach	New Historicist Method Applied	Explanation (Based on Pieters)
William Shakespeare’s Othello	Narrativist + Heterological	Use of historical anecdotes to parallel themes of manipulation and identity construction	Greenblatt juxtaposes Othello with Peter Martyr’s De Orbe Novo to illustrate how both use “improvisation” to control others; this reflects early modern discourses of self and racialized otherness (Pieters, pp. 29–30).
William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice	Narrativist	Analysis of social zones (religion, law, commerce) and circulation of social energy	Greenblatt explores how discourses of economics and anti-Semitism intersect in Shylock’s character, reflecting Renaissance anxieties about outsiders within systems of power (Pieters, p. 32).
*Shakespeare’s Cross-Dressing Comedies (Twelfth Night, As You Like It)*	Narrativist	Mapping discursive formations around gender and identity	Using Jacques Duval’s medical treatise on hermaphroditism, Greenblatt analyzes gender fluidity and theatricality in these plays as cultural negotiations of Renaissance sexual anxieties (Pieters, p. 32).
Michel de Montaigne’s Travel Journal (as source) → *Shakespeare’s Comedies*	Heterological	Microstoria as site of cultural repression and estrangement	Greenblatt uses Montaigne’s account of gender ambiguity to uncover how suppressed social anxieties return in Shakespeare’s comedies; anecdotes act as echoes of the “repressed” (Pieters, pp. 33–34).

Criticism Against “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters

⚠️ Ambiguity in Greenblatt’s Positioning
Pieters admits that it’s difficult to place Stephen Greenblatt definitively within either the narrativist or heterological tradition:

“His reading method can be said to contain traces of both approaches.” (p. 28)
This lack of clarity may weaken the heuristic value of the narrativist/heterological divide itself.

⚠️ Tension Between Theory and Practice
Although the essay establishes theoretical foundations (via Ankersmit, Foucault, Certeau), Pieters acknowledges Greenblatt’s resistance to theorization and his tendency to blur philosophical distinctions for rhetorical purposes:

“Greenblatt tries to take the two under one and the same umbrella, without wondering about the appropriateness of doing so.” (p. 23)

⚠️ Risk of Sliding into Traditional Historicism
Pieters warns that despite New Historicism’s postmodern claims, it may inadvertently revert to traditional historicist assumptions—particularly through its search for cultural coherence via concepts like “social energy”:

“This logic may ultimately be taken to imply that the historian… will be able to get in touch with the real of the past.” (p. 34)

⚠️ Problem of “Arbitrary Connectedness”
Greenblatt’s use of anecdotes (as discussed by Pieters) has been criticized for lacking causal or methodological rigor:

“What is the exact nature of the relationship between Iago’s attitude and that of the Spanish conquistadores?” (p. 31)
Critics like Walter Cohen argue this leads to thematic free association rather than disciplined historical analysis.

⚠️ Anecdote as a Double-Edged Method
While the anecdote offers insight into cultural systems (resonance/wonder), its referential ambiguity raises problems:

“The anecdote both serves as the central locus of a culture’s dispersive nature… and as the site where history’s other can be brought to the fore.” (p. 28)
This duality complicates claims to either historicist precision or heterological disruption.

⚠️ Overreliance on Poststructuralist Canon
Pieters’ reliance on Foucault, Certeau, and Ankersmit, while insightful, may limit alternative historicist models (e.g. Marxist materialism, feminist historiography), narrowing the theoretical diversity.

⚠️ Potential Idealization of Anecdotal Heuristics
The trust placed in “thick description” and cultural micro-events risks romanticizing isolated fragments, while neglecting broader socio-economic structures or empirical history.
⚠️ Methodological Vagueness of “Social Energy”
Pieters acknowledges Greenblatt’s own uncertainty in defining this concept:

“The question of the true essence of social energy is to a large extent unanswerable.” (p. 33)

Representative Quotations from “New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism And Heterology” by Jürgen Pieters with Explanation

Quotation	Explanation / Theoretical Relevance
1. “At its most brilliant, its most elegant, New Historicism is characteristically postmodern.”	Pieters underscores New Historicism’s alignment with postmodern historiography, highlighting its rejection of grand narratives and embrace of multiplicity, contingency, and irony.
2. “Greenblatt actually lumps together two distinct historiographical practices that are better kept apart.”	This critiques Greenblatt’s oversimplification of ‘historicism’, pushing for conceptual clarity between speculative philosophies of history (e.g., Hegel) and empiricist historiography (e.g., Ranke).
3. “Narrativists believe that the historian’s language does not reflect a coherence… but only gives coherence to the past.”	Reflects Frank Ankersmit’s narrativist view: history is not discovered but constructed through narrative forms, shaping New Historicism’s discursive approach to historical texts.
4. “Greenblatt proposes a fully dialogical practice.”	Describes New Historicism’s methodological departure from monological history by emphasizing dialogue—between texts, and between past and present.
5. “The mansion of postmodernist historicism contains many rooms.”	A metaphor used by Pieters to acknowledge the diversity within postmodern historical practices—specifically distinguishing between narrativism (Foucault) and heterology (de Certeau).
6. “The anecdote both serves as the central locus of a culture’s dispersive nature and as the site where history’s other can be brought to the fore.”	Pieters defines the anecdote as a hybrid tool in New Historicism—both structuring historical knowledge and revealing the margins of that knowledge.
7. “What binds together cultural practices… is the notion of social energy.”	Refers to Greenblatt’s concept of ‘social energy’, which explains how cultural forms acquire shared meaning and affect across social zones.
8. “Greenblatt wants the historian to be true to his calling and become a ‘conjurer’ (un illusioniste) who presents the past as if it were real.”	Reveals Greenblatt’s theatrical vision of history—less about facts, more about performance and resonance, stressing the constructed nature of ‘historical reality’.
9. “New Historicism aims to rescue historicism from the metaphysical realism which marred its older versions.”	Pieters defends New Historicism as a revitalization, not a rejection, of historicist traditions—only without naive assumptions of objectivity.
10. “It is the function of the new historicism continually to renew the marvelous at the heart of the resonant.”	Captures the dual function of New Historicist reading: historical contextualization (‘resonance’) and aesthetic uniqueness (‘wonder’).

Day: March 26, 2025