LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:11 November 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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New Historicism Applied to To Kill A Mockingbird

X. Merlin, M.A., M.Phil. Candidate
Dr. Helen Unius Backiavathy

Abstract

New Historicism is a literary theory based on the view that literature should be studied, designed and understood within the discourse of both the chronicle of the author and the history of the critic. Based on the study of literary criticism of Stephen Greenblatt and proposed by the philosophy of Michel Foucault, New Historicism declares not only that a work of literature is influenced by its author's period of time and circumstances, but that the critic's reaction to that piece of work is also influenced by his environment, notion, and preconception. A New Historicist perception of literature in a wider historical context analyses both how the writer's times stricken the work and how the work reverberates the writer's times, in turn acknowledge that contemporary cultural contexts color that critic's reason out. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel of historical fiction written by an American writer Harper Lee, a story in which the scene plays a important part in the issue and is anywhere from 25 years in the past to prehistoric times. The story of the novel portrays life in a particular time, period or centering on a particular event in history. The significant to impressive historical fiction is the quality of the author’s references to existent events and the authentic portrayal of characters in the time period. Characters framed in historical fiction may either be fanciful or portrayals of actual historical figures. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the 1930s in a small Alabama town. The year is significant because it is in the midst of the Great Depression. When analysing literature, I could use this theory in the present article as a way to better understand the various approaches one may view a piece of literature as a result of their personal biases, as well as encouraging research into a particular subject.

Keywords: History, Background, Racism, Slavery, Rights, Practice, Segregation

New Historicism

Greenblatt is a leading figure in the critical movement known as the new historicism. Begun in America in the early 1980’s, this school of thought is in great measure a reaction against the tendency in much modern criticism, starting with the New Critics and extending through deconstruction, to concentrate on the language of isolated texts and ignore the worldly circumstances- the societies and times- that produced them. The new historicism returns literary works to history and culture. This return, it is important to note, does not repeat the historicism of earlier generations, which saw literature as reflecting, in mirror like fashion, a unified spirit of the age. Instead, it combines the urge to reconnect texts to their real-world referents and sources with the lessons of contemporary language-centered theories, which in various ways stress the power of words to make rather than merely mimic reality, in order to create a new and reinvigorated notion of literature as a historically and culturally grounded form of expression. “The idea of a uniform and harmonious culture, “Selden writes, “is a myth imposed on history and propagated by ruling classes in their own interests.” (Understanding contemporary American literary theory, Pg-67)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


X. Merlin, M.A., M.Phil. Candidate
Research Scholar
Department of English
Karunya University
Karunya Nagar
Coimbatore-641114
Tamil Nadu
India
merlinx94@gmail.com

Dr. Helen Unius Backiavathy
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Karunya University
Karunya Nagar
Coimbatore-641114
Tamil Nadu
India
helenub@karunya.edu

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