篇名 | Limits and Beyond:Greenblatt, New Historicism and a Feminist Genealog |
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卷期 | 7:1 |
作者 | Lai, Chung-hsiung |
頁次 | 001-029 |
關鍵字 | Greenblatt 、 New Historicism 、 language 、 self 、 power 、 wonder 、 resonance 、 feminism 、 genealogy |
出刊日期 | 200603 |
Though one of the most powerful disciplines of contemporary literary criticism, New Historicism has faced attacks from various quarters. Accordingly, using Greenblatt’s works as examples, I am going to explore the theoretical problems of New Historicism in detail by dividing its development into two stages—the first stage is the “panoptical past: language, self and power” and the second is “go-betweenness: wonder and resonance.” The former is trapped a Foucauldian closure-structure of power relations with the politics of cultural despair, whereas the latter has tended to escape from this pessimistic trap with the strategy of “go-betweenness.” Facing up to these aspects, rather than presenting a “shopping list” of improvements required for New Historicism, I will explain how New Historicism should be reconciled with the mainstream postmodernism, which is more diverse, affirmative and ethico-political than the formalistic and pessimistic theory advocated by Greenblatt. I will then ex-amine the possibility of a feminist new historicism to show how New Historicism can revitalize its critique, cross its limits and thus reach beyond its traditional domain.