A New Historicism Study of Shakespeare's Historical Plays

Abstract

One of the distinctive features of Shakespeare's research in the new century is the study of his history plays in the perspective of New Historicism criticism. New Historicism scholars advocate bringing historical investigation into literary studies and point out that the relationship between literature and history is not foreground and background, but interaction and mutual influence. New Historicism scholars represented by Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose propose some important concepts such as "textuality of history", "historicity of text", "subversion" and "containment" to analyze and elaborate the relationship between literature and history. This paper intends to adopt these concepts in New Historicism to examine the connection and interaction between social political history and Shakespeare’s history plays, thus providing insight into the profound influence of social and political history on Shakespeare and his works and the significance of his history plays in the social and political life of Shakespeare’s era. Keywords—Shakespeare; history plays; New Historicism