Historicism

Historicism is the essential introduction to this crucial concept in literary studies. This edition has been fully revised and includes a new glossary of critical terms, fully updated bibliography, clear suggestions for additional reading, as well as new discussion of Historicism's relation to the globalization debate. Historicism :*explains the theory and practice of historicism*presents the history of the term and its uses*introduces key thinkers in the field, from ancient Greece to the present*considers historicism in relation to contemporary debates, such as post-colonialism, feminism and globalization.This compact, yet comprehensive guide enables students to understand and apply historicist approaches in their own studies.

'offers a perspective not found in other commentaries and provides a formidable challenge to those who would argue that Vico's central theory is predominantly "religious".'Choice'... in this erudite and provocative study...an original and valuable contribution to Vico scholarship'Italica

This book attempts to justify and theorize old historicism, defining archaeo-historicism as a method by which scholars can reconstruct past context in order to apply it to the interpretation of works and events of that time. If such reconstruction is to be more than wildly impressionistic, it must be grounded in hard evidence handled according to clear rules. In this intriguing and rigorous analysis, Robert Hume identifies legitimate objects for reconstruction and proposes procedures and principles by which such interpretation may be pursued. He then examines the failures of the same method, which works only when adequate evidence can be found. In particular, Hume flatly denies the intellectual legitimacy of literary history as it is commonly practised and attempts to disentangle such history from the practice of historicism. The final chapter is devoted to a cogent discussion of how archaeo-historicism relates to various forms of contemporary theory. Hume offers a profusion of examples of good and bad historicist reconstruction and interpretation, drawing largely on English literature but also on American and other world literatures, theatre history, and music theory. Although addressed primarily to literary critics, this wide-ranging and bold work will be of interest to historians and cultural critics as well.