The paths of a new historicism

In the past fifteen years, the need for an historical approach to literary works has been a claim for a part of the Anglo-American criticism. The New Historicism has become a known and prestigious school, who offers renewed and attractive analysis of literary texts, placing them in the network of social relations in wich they were produced. This essay seeks to summarize the basical features of the new historical school: its links to the old historicism and the poststructuralism; the importance of the relations between the text and the time in wich it was produced and received; the formal construction of the critical discourse; the main points of thought and the internal disagreements. Theoretical objections and a provisional valuation are also included.