Rethinking Historicism from Shakespeare to Milton

This volume explores the history and practice of historicism and its present usefulness for literary criticism, its limitations and its future.

Ann Baynes Coiro (Edited by), Thomas Fulton (Edited by)

9781107027510, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 October 2012

316 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

'This stimulating collection reassesses historicist approaches to Renaissance literature in the wake of New Historicism and in response to challenges from presentist, formalist, and disciplinary quarters.' Mario Digangi, Renaissance Quarterly

Reading literary texts in their historical contexts has been the dominant form of interpretation in literary criticism for the past thirty years. This collection of essays reflects on the origins of historicism and its present usefulness as a mode of literary analysis, its limitations and its future. The volume provides a brief history of the practice from its Renaissance origins, offering examples of historicist work that not only demonstrate the continuing vitality of this methodology but also suggest new directions for research. Focusing on the major figures of Shakespeare and Milton, these essays provide important and concise representations of trends in the field. Designed for scholars and students of early modern English literature (1500–1700), the volume will also be of interest to students of literature more generally and to historians.

Acknowledgments
Introduction Ann Baynes Coiro and Thomas Fulton
Part I. Historicism and Its Discontents: 1. Has historicism gone too far: or, should we return to form? Andrew Hadfield
2. Theory and practice in historical method Michael McKeon
3. Limiting history Marshall Grossman
Part II. Historicism and Theology: 4. The politics of Renaissance historicism: Valla, Erasmus, Colet, and more Thomas Fulton
5. Historicizing satisfaction in Shakespeare's Othello Heather Hirschfeld
Part III. Dramatic Histories: 6. The new presentism and its discontents: listening to Eastward Ho and Shakespeare's Tempest in dialogue Paul Stevens
7. In great men's houses: playing, patronage, and the performance of Tudor history Lawrence Manley
Part IV. Milton and the Problems of History: 8. Medea's dilemma: politics and passion in Milton's divorce tracts Sharon Achinstein
9. Milton, Foucault, and the new historicism Martin Dzelzainis
Part V. Gendering Historicism: 10. 'You shall be our generalless': fashioning warrior women from Henrietta Maria to Hillary Clinton Laura Knoppers
11. War-times: seventeenth-century women's writing and its afterlives Erin Murphy
Afterword Nigel Smith.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]