Greenblatt, Stephen. "Towards a Poetics of Culture." The New Historicism. Ed. H. Aram
Veeser. New York. Routledge, 1989. 1-13.
In his writing, Stephen Greenblatt seeks to reveal the relationship between texts and their sociohistorical contexts. He assumes that texts not only document the social forces that inform and constitute history and society but also feature prominently in the social processes themselves which form both individual identity and the sociohistorical situation. He focuses on their relationship between.text and context and between art and society.
In the essay, "Towards a Poetics of Culture," he examines the ideas of the Marxist Fredric Jameson and the poststructuralist Jean-Francois Lyotard. In his view a poem should be looked at as poetry as well as looking at the way it is informed by the sociohistorical context and the ways in which it acquires its meaning. Poetry and history are both a part of the creative force that pervades all forms of human activity.
.According to Greenblatt, Jameson attempts to justify a materialist integration of all discourses and doesn't wish. to recognize a separate artistic sphere. The capitalist distinction between poetic and socio-political texts reinforces segregation of private and public, the psychological and the social. Capitalism seems to be the cause of repressing differences.
Also, in Greenblatt's view, Lyotard is primarily interested in the differences in all discourses. The differences are based on the existence of proper names. Lyotard says that capitalism questions the differences trying to coin a single language and a single network. Capitalism causes a false unity and is an agent of totalization.
Greenblatt feels that both these views are inaccurate. He argues against Jameson saying that capitalism causes all discourse to be shared. He argues against Lyotard saying that capitalism contributes to individuality. The differences and organization are both contradictory effects of a capitalistic society. According to Greenblatt, the power of capitalism lies in the fluctuation between difference and totality. The establishment of "distinct discourse domains and the collapse of those domains into one another" (9) characterizes capitalistic societies from the sixteenth century onwards.
The directional changes between totalization and differences and between uniformity and diversity has two consequences regarding textuality. First, discourse changes the confines of the text as a part of all social practice. Second, a given text is not only a fragment of an overall discourse, but it is also subject to the cultural arguments that fashion it and is suspended between the two extremes. Greenblatt hopes to change the division of the economic and non-economic, to show that disinterested and self-sacrificing practices, including art, aim to maximize material or symbolic profit.
Veeser. New York. Routledge, 1989. 1-13.
In his writing, Stephen Greenblatt seeks to reveal the relationship between texts and their sociohistorical contexts. He assumes that texts not only document the social forces that inform and constitute history and society but also feature prominently in the social processes themselves which form both individual identity and the sociohistorical situation. He focuses on their relationship between.text and context and between art and society.
In the essay, "Towards a Poetics of Culture," he examines the ideas of the Marxist Fredric Jameson and the poststructuralist Jean-Francois Lyotard. In his view a poem should be looked at as poetry as well as looking at the way it is informed by the sociohistorical context and the ways in which it acquires its meaning. Poetry and history are both a part of the creative force that pervades all forms of human activity.
.According to Greenblatt, Jameson attempts to justify a materialist integration of all discourses and doesn't wish. to recognize a separate artistic sphere. The capitalist distinction between poetic and socio-political texts reinforces segregation of private and public, the psychological and the social. Capitalism seems to be the cause of repressing differences.
Also, in Greenblatt's view, Lyotard is primarily interested in the differences in all discourses. The differences are based on the existence of proper names. Lyotard says that capitalism questions the differences trying to coin a single language and a single network. Capitalism causes a false unity and is an agent of totalization.
Greenblatt feels that both these views are inaccurate. He argues against Jameson saying that capitalism causes all discourse to be shared. He argues against Lyotard saying that capitalism contributes to individuality. The differences and organization are both contradictory effects of a capitalistic society. According to Greenblatt, the power of capitalism lies in the fluctuation between difference and totality. The establishment of "distinct discourse domains and the collapse of those domains into one another" (9) characterizes capitalistic societies from the sixteenth century onwards.
The directional changes between totalization and differences and between uniformity and diversity has two consequences regarding textuality. First, discourse changes the confines of the text as a part of all social practice. Second, a given text is not only a fragment of an overall discourse, but it is also subject to the cultural arguments that fashion it and is suspended between the two extremes. Greenblatt hopes to change the division of the economic and non-economic, to show that disinterested and self-sacrificing practices, including art, aim to maximize material or symbolic profit.
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