A Study Of Greenblatt’s New Historicist Shakespeare Criticism

New Historicism emerged in the late 1970 s and the early 1980 s,and soon became popular in English Renaissance studies especially Shakespeare studies.As a revolt against Formalism and Old Historicism,New Historicism stresses the importance of intertextuality between history and text.History shapes literature,and literature shapes history.New Historicism opens a new direction for literary criticism,producing great influence on the contemporary study of literary theory.As the founder of New Historicism,Stephen Greenblatt makes great contributions to the founding,practicing and developing of New Historicist Shakespeare criticism.He is named by Harvard University as “Father of New Historicism”.Greenblatt attaches great importance to the intertextuality of literary text,practicing New Historicism in the way of interpreting literature and history.In the criticism of Shakespeare,Greenblatt puts forward some concepts and modes with the characteristics of New Historicism.This thesis first discusses Greenblatt’s mode of self-fashioning.Self-fashioning is a method that the writers can constantly fashion their identities and the characters in their works during the process of literary creation in severe social conflicts and historical background.In addition,Greenblatt uses many economic terms,such as “social energy”,“negotiation”,“exchange” and “circulation”in Shakespeare criticism and analyzes the circulated and negotiated social energy in the dramas of Shakespeare.Social energy is a kind of energy and vitality that frequently exchanges,circulates and negotiates between the author,works and the author’s real life.This kind of negotiation connects literature and text,literature and history.What’s more,Greenblatt proposes the power model of subversion andcontainment,analyzing the power operation in Shakespeare’s chronicle plays,which reflects Shakespeare’s attitudes towards kingship.Subversion is to question the social ideology raised by the dominant power and to listen to the voices of the common people.Containment is to control this kind of subversion within certain limits,letting them unable to achieve substantial effects.In addition,Greenblatt takes special interest in the issue of death and purgatory.Through the analysis of Hamlet,this thesis reveals Greenblatt’s idea of purgatory and the close relationship between Hamlet and Shakespeare’s real life,and analyzes the mental process of Shakespeare’s drama creation.Focusing on the important texts of Greenblatt’s Shakespeare criticism,this thesis analyzes the important connotation,characteristics and significance of Greenblatt’s New Historicist Shakespeare criticism.