On the other hand, don't they still teach I. A. Richards at Cambridge?

Posted by September Blue Wednesday 11 April 2007

There is something very strange about any critical overview which describes New Historicism as 'develop[ing] in response to New Criticism'. It's not wrong, as such; it's just, given the time-gap between New Criticism falling out of favour and New Historicism skipping giddily in, weird to think of the latter's development as a bunch of literary critics sitting in a room for several decades trying to puzzle things out ("You know... I keep getting this nagging feeling that historical context is important, but I can't quite put my finger on why..." "No, same here, and - my God, is it 1975 already? Who wants some more coffee?") until Stephen Greenblatt leaps onto a desk shouting "Eureka, everybody, I've got it!"

1 Responses to On the other hand, don't they still teach I. A. Richards at Cambridge?

  1. Laz Says:
  2. I understand not of what you speak, but I must say, you write it all so darn nice that I reads it anyway.

    I'm currently reading Goldfinger by Ian Fleming, for your information. Now he must be good for me to not skip the golf scenes...