Shakespeare and New Historicist Theory

Neema Parvini is Lecturer in English at the University of Surrey. He is the author of Shakespeare’s History Plays: Rethinking Historicism (2012) and Shakespeare and Contemporary Theory: New Historicism and Cultural Materialism (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2012).

• Series Editor’s Preface Acknowledgements Introductory Note 1 What is ‘History’? 2 After Tillyard, before Greenblatt 3 Power, Containment and Cultural Poetics 4 New Historicism in Practice: The Case of Measure for Measure 5 New Historicism and Feminism 6 The Opponents of New Historicism 7 The Legacy of New Historicism Notes Bibliography

Neema Parvini’s concise and polemical retelling of this once powerful mode of critical reading is a useful reminder of what was gained by New Historicism, what its limitations were, and what kind of legacy it has left ... Parvini writes directly, passionately, and engagingly ... Useful to anyone, students and scholars, in need of a quick reference guide to the gist of critique of New Historicism.