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The New Historicism and Its Discontents: Politicizing Renaissance Drama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Edward Pechter
Edward Pechter*
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal, Québec
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Abstract

This essay, while referring particularly to commentary about Renaissance drama, examines the new historicism more generally as one of the most powerful and interesting forms of criticism on the contemporary scene. How do new-historicist critics characterize the text? What do they mean by history? How do they understand the relation between the two? And finally, are there other, arguably more useful kinds of answers available to us than the ones the new historicists typically provide?

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 102 , Issue 3 , May 1987 , pp. 292 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1987

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