Transcript The Literature of War, Part 1 New Historicist Criticism What is New Historicist Criticism? • New Historicism attempts to interpret a work.

The Literature of War, Part 1
New Historicist Criticism
What is New Historicist Criticism?
• New Historicism attempts to interpret a work by
examining the historical and cultural context in which
a work was created as well as the unique concerns
that modern readers bring to historical texts.
• New Historicists are interested in primary sources
that touch on issues that a work addresses such as
contemporary (published at the same time as the
work) newspaper articles, letters, studies, and other
documents that shed light on how the culture that
produced the work would have viewed it.
• New Historicists recognize that there are multiple
cultural contexts that produce a reading of a work,
and are interested in how these contexts work with
(and sometimes against) each other.
What makes New Historicists Different from Other
Critics Who Bring Historical Context into Their Analysis?
• New Historicists are much more likely to want to look at a
broad cross section of attitudes and ideas about any given
topic in a society. New Historicists are keenly aware of the
fact that for much of history, the art and literature that
has come down to us was produced by and for a small,
elite segment of that society. This is why they are so
interested in primary sources that illuminate views held by
those who were not represented in that art and literature.
• For a New Historicists, understanding the conditions and
attitudes of “everyday people” can shed light on ideologies
and belief systems that are present in works of literature.
• New Historicists also tend to be more aware of themselves
as people with a unique cultural context that might affect
their reading of a work.
The Rejection of the “Progressive”
Model of History
• New Historicists reject the old model of history as
“progressive.” (This is the idea that “history is a story of things
constantly getting better.”) History had long been presented to
the public in this way.
• The New Historicists were some of the people who started
saying things like, “Wait a second… telling the story of the
British Empire as the glorious rise of a great nation neglects to
mention the fact that Britain’s colonization of these other
countries destroyed native cultures and institutionalized
racism in a way that we’re still dealing with.”
• Or… “Telling the story of the American West as a continuous,
inevitable, ‘taming of a savage land’ ignores a long, messy
history of between the U.S. government and Native Americans
that consisted of a lot of broken promises and a lot of
suffering.”
What Questions do New Historicist
Critics Ask?
• What issues in this work would have been
particularly relevant to its original audience?
What primary sources from the period might help
us to understand this issue’s historical
importance?
• How does this work respond to the dominant
social and cultural assumptions of its time? Does
it support or rebel against them? Does it critique
them? Mock them? Question them?
• How do our own social and cultural assumptions
affect our reading of this work?
“To Lucasta Going to the Wars” p. 564
Context and Timeline
• Richard Lovelace was a strong supporter of the English
monarchy at a time when it was terribly unpopular.
• Lovelace is considered a “Cavalier Poet”
– Cavalier, which originally meant a soldier mounted on
horseback (hear the similarity to “cavalry”?) was originally
an insulting term used for supporters of King Charles I,
though they themselves adopted it and used it proudly.
– Cavalier poets are concerned with ideals of love, beauty,
honor, and elegance. Unlike their contemporaries, the
metaphysical poets, Cavalier poetry is straightforward and
to the point.
Historical Context for “Lucasta” cont.
• “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” was written in
1640, and it reflects Lovelace’s experiences
during a military campaign for Charles I that
would eventually lead to the English Civil War.
• English Civil War began in October of 1642, and
continued off and on for the next seven years.
• Charles was executed in January of 1649. He is
the first and only king of England to be executed
by order of Parliament.
Some portraits of Cavalier style
Charles I, King of England, from
Three Angles.
Richard Lovelace, circa 1650
Another van Dyck portrait.
Lord John Stuart and his
brother Lord Bernard
painted by Anthony van
Dyck, 1638
What observations can we make about these “contemporary
artifacts”? What might they tell you about the Lucasta
poem?
How do our own contemporary ideas about clothing, honor,
and masculinity color our readings of these paintings and the
poem?
Further Questions for “Lucasta”
• Describe the author’s attitude toward war. How does it
connect with his attitude toward love? How are the
two related?
• What 17th century cultural assumptions about war,
love, and honor are evident in this poem?
• Based on what we know about the historical context of
this poem, what do you think the original audience
would have found most important in this poem?
• What reaction do you as a modern reader have to this
poem? What cultural contexts account for the
difference between your reaction and the original
audience’s?
“Dulce et Decorum Est” p. 664
Historical Context
• Wilfred Owen wrote what is widely considered to
be some of the finest war poetry in English about
his experiences in the First World War.
• Owen joined the armed forces 1915 out of a sense
of patriotic obligation and very quickly underwent
a transformation from patriotic, high-spirited
young man to a disillusioned, war weary soldier.
• Owen survived most of the war, but was killed on
November 4, 1918 at the age of 25, seven days
before the Armistice agreement that signaled the
end of the fighting.
Questions to Ask About the
Propaganda Posters:
• What do you notice about the images on each
poster?
• What attitude towards the war does each
image seem to convey?
• What connections can you make between
these images and any of the three poems we
read for today, but especially “Dulce et
Decorum Est”?
The woman
holding the flag
is Britannia, a
female
personification
of the nation of
Britain who
appears often
in patriotic art
and literature.
(The U.S. has
one too. Her
name is
Columbia.)
The knight on
the white horse
is St. George,
England’s
Patron Saint,
whose claim to
fame was
slaying a
dragon. (Who
might the
dragon
represent
here?)
While the first
posters
emphasized the
soldier’s
participation in
Britain’s “mythic”
story, this one
seems a bit more
practical… What
other differences do
you notice?
The man in the
top hat and the
flag vest is John
Bull. He is to
Britain what
Uncle Sam is to
the United
States.
The posters
in this
slideshow,
along with
propaganda
material
from other
countries,
can be
viewed in
full at
http://www.
ww1propag
anda.com/w
orld-war-1posters/briti
sh-ww1propaganda
-posters
This is perhaps
one of the most
straightforward
of the posters.
The man at the
top is King
George V, who
reigned during
WWI.
Further context for “Dulce et Decoum
Est”
• World War I saw the first use of such
developments in modern warfare as the machine
gun, airplanes, and chemical warfare (mustard
gas and other nerve agents).
• An estimated 8.5 million soldiers died in the
fighting, and that number does not include
wounded and civilian deaths. The world had
never seen anything like this in terms of the
number of dead, and it earned WWI the title
“The War to End All Wars.”
Questions for “Dulce et Decorum Est”
• Compare Owen’s attitude toward war to
Lovelace’s. What traditionally held ideas about
war and honor is Owen responding to?
• What is the significance of the quote that is
used for the title and for the last two lines of
the poem?
• What images in this poem are particularly
striking to you? How might they have
appeared to a public faced with modern
warfare for the first time?
“The Man He Killed” and “The End and the
Beginning”
• What contradiction exists in “The Man He Killed”? (p.
491) What is the author’s attitude toward this
contradiction?
• Though “The Man He Killed” was published eighteen
years before “Dulce et Decorum Est,” both of them
seem to shared a skepticism about the “glory” of war.
What other similarities do you see?
• The very title of “The End and the Beginning” (p. 670)
suggests a pair of opposites. What other themes are
being set against each other here?
• How is this, our most “modern” war poem so far,
relate to the others we have read today? Do you
notice any significant differences? What do you think
they mean?