The New Historicists include
(A) Greenblatt, Showalter, Montrose
(B) Greenblatt, Sinfield, Butler
(C) Greenblatt, Montrose, Goldberg
(D) Williams, Greenblatt, Belsey
Ans: (C)
Which of these statements is incorrect about presentism and its basic premises ?
(A) Hugh Grady is its principal proponent
(B) Our knowledge of works from the past is conditioned by and dependent upon the ideologies of the present
(C) Presentism does not contextualize cultural production in the same way or make use of the theorists that New Historicism does
(D) Historicism itself necessarily produces an implicit allegory of the present in its configuration of the past
Ans: (C)
How would a New Historicist critic interpret Derrida’s statement, “there is nothing outside the text” ?
(A) historicist critics should restrict their attention to a culture’s literary productions, all other data is irrelevant to the critic’s task
(B) language conditions the way we see the world, and there is no reality beyond the ‘prison house’ of language
(C) there is no meaning outside of textual meaning (contrary to the mimeticist’s position)
(D) “literature” encompasses all cultural artifacts and all the values, power relations, and ways of seeing reflected in those artifacts; there is nothing outside of the “text” broadly conceived
Ans: (D)
