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New Historicism and Race and Ethnic Studies

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“New” vs. “Old” Historicism

• “Old” Historicism– History provides the background and context for a

story.– History is stable and objective.• Literature reflects or presents history.

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“New” vs. “Old” Historicism

• “Old” Historicism– History provides the background and context for a story.– History is stable and objective.

• Literature reflects or presents history.

• New Historicism– Both history and literature are complex and uncertain.– Need to consider multiple points of view and

interpretations.• History and literature = cycle of mutual influence. (Make and

remake each other.)

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New Historicism

• Move away from essentialism– History is a construction rather than an “essence”

or truth.• E.g. One view= Christopher Columbus discovered

America.• Another=Columbus was a brutal invader and

conqueror.

– It’s important to consider history from multiple viewpoints and to understand it as a “text.”

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Race and Ethnic Studies

• Overlaps with more specific focal points and areas:– South Asian Studies– African Studies– Latin American Studies– Pacific Studies– In the U.S.:

• Asian American Studies, Latina/Latino studies (or Chicana/Chicano studies, depending on emphasis), American Indian Studies, African American Studies, Hawaiian Studies, etc.

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“Zooming In”: Gloria Anzaldúa and Borderlands/La Frontera

• Theorist in cultural studies, feminism, and queer theory

• Borderlands/La Frontera– Emphasis on honoring or celebrating the mixing of

national, racial, sexual, and gendered cultures and identities.

– Language and Identity• Seamless movement between many different

languages and dialects (multiple versions of English and Spanish, including Spanglish and Nahuatl)

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Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa

“So if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity−I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex, and all of the other languages that I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without always having to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, as as long as I have to accommodate English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.

I will no longer be made to be ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue−my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence” (81).

Anzaldúa, Gloria Evangelina. Borderlands/La Frontera. 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999.