Volume 39, Number 12 · June 25, 1992
The High Cost of New History
By Frank Kermode
Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England
by Richard Helgerson
University of Chicago Press, 367 pp., $27.50
An influential group of American academic literary critics has decided that, history—cultural history—so long neglected, it is said, by earlier influential groups, is now its most urgent business. They are called 'the New Historicists.' The English Renaissance has apparently been chosen as the period promising the best return on this investment in new historical techniques; so the reign of Elizabeth I is now the rage in late twentieth-century California, and especially at Berkeley, where the movement called the New Historicism originated.
Review, 3845 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |