2. The Influences of the Other Theories on New
Historicism:
2.1.Michel Foucault: The Godfather of New
Historicism:
The strange coincidence between the flourishing of new
historicism and the visit of the French philosopher Michel Foucault to the
University of California at Berkeley in the 1980s can be read as an act of
baptizing the theory, especially after we notice the tremendous influence of
Foucault on its every key idea. The impact of Foucault on new historicists can
be recorded at the level of five concepts: the Foucauldian definition of
discourse, the concept of episteme, the concept of pouvoir/ savoir
(power and knowledge), his theory of Panopticism and his definition of
history.
To define "discourse", Michel Foucault transcends the linguistic
dimension of the concept, stating in his book The Archaeology of Knowledge
(1969), that discourse presents "the general domain of all statements,
sometimes as an individualizable group of statements and sometimes as a
regulated practice that accounts for a certain number of statements" (90).
Discourse is defined as the act of producing and representing knowledge through
statements. It is language in use in a specific field (medicine, law...) and by
specific institutions (church, state ...). Thus, the society presents a
discursive battlefield where the centralized and the marginalized discourses
struggle against each other for survival and domination.
The concept of discourse presents a fertile ground to set a more
macroscopic concept, which is episteme referring to the connecting web that
relates different discourses (historical, scientific, judicial, religious...)
into a larger, and more coherent structure. In his book
Layouni 7
Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings
1972-1977 (1980), Foucault provides a clear definition of episteme as
"[...] the strategic apparatus which permits of separating out from among all
the statements which are possible those that will be acceptable within, I won't
say a scientific theory, but a field of scientificity, and which it is possible
to say are true or false. The episteme is the `apparatus' which makes possible
the separation, not of the true from the false, but of what may from what may
not be characterized as scientific" (197). New historicists used the concept of
episteme, developed by Foucault, in order to re-situate literary texts within
their cultural and historical contexts, considering that literature as a field
that does not reflect a particular epoch but it rather participates in shaping
it, becoming a cultural and historical agent. Thus, the literary text as a
discourse is situated within a connection of other discourses (political,
cultural, historical, aesthetic and religious
discourses) sharing a mutual influence.
The tremendous impact of Foucauldian concepts is further
accentuated through the adoption of the concept of pouvoir/savoir. New
historicists believe in the power of pervasiveness, a notion shared with
Foucault who believes in the omnipresence of power. Foucault does not use the
classical, conventional definition of power, being related to the judicial and
political field. He rather uses a more inclusive definition, referring to power
as "the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they
operate and which constitute their own organization [...] forming a chain or a
system" ( The History of Sexuality 92). Inspired by Foucault, new
historicists try to figure out the different forms and shapes that power takes
from one historical period to another. Stephen Greenblatt, the key figure of
new historicism, uses this theory of power/ knowledge to study the debate
between the literature of English Renaissance (particularly Shakespeare's
history plays) as a form of discourse and its Elizabethan society over the
circulation and operation of power.
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The French philosopher further develops his thesis on power by
studying its operation and comparing it to a panopticon, an 18th C
design of prison, elaborated by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, where
the watchtower is situated in the middle of the prison. The panopticon, as a
new architecture, is based upon the idea of maintaining power and discipline
constantly, which necessitates the inspector's omnipresence. Bentham chooses to
situate the watchtower in the center to permit the inspector to have an eye on
prisoners without being seen or identified, giving him a god-like existence, a
presence through absence. In the introduction to Jeremy Bentham: The
Panopticon Writings, Miran Bazovic defined panopticon as "a new mode of
obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example"(1).
The whole notion of power is not built upon the inspector's physical presence
but rather upon the prisoners' unawareness of his illusive "invisible
omnipresence" (1). This 18th C design of an all-encompassing prison
draws Foucault's attention to the power procedure in modern, democratic
societies. In his book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
(1975), Foucault starts first by further defining the mechanism of
panopticon as
The diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form;
its
functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or
friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system [...]
It is polyvalent in its applications; it serves to reform prisoners, but also
to treat patients, to instruct schoolchildren, to confine the insane, to
supervise workers, to put beggars and idlers to work. It is a type of location
of bodies in space, of distribution of individuals in relation to one another,
of hierarchical organization, of disposition of centers and channels of power,
of definition of the instruments and modes of intervention of power, which can
be implemented in hospitals, workshops, schools, prisons. Whenever one is
dealing with a multiplicity of
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individuals on whom a task or a particular form of behavior must
be imposed, the panoptic schema may be used. (205)
Foucault then elaborates Bentham's view that people of democratic
societies need to believe in their constant surveillance in order to guarantee
power and order. Foucault believes that the supposedly democratic societies use
a kind of mind control by giving an illusion of freedom while they are
constantly observed and controlled. Foucault expresses that Bentham's design
presents a microcosm of what power stands for. The Foucauldian power is just
the
panopticon, "visible" for everyone since it is centralized and
"unverifiable", since no one can verify if he is observed or not (203). Power
is not grouped in one place but rather forms a whole hierarchy of organized
institutions that control every aspect of daily life. This particular pervasive
image of power (being a form of self- discipline) presents a starting point for
many literary and political theories and notably Greenblatt's thesis in his
book Renaissance Self Fashioning.
Another key notion that shaped the new historicist theory is the
Foucauldian reading of history. He adopts an archeological method, viewing
history as a series of discontinuities and ruptures and that there is no
continuity between different historical epochs. History is a number of
epistemes that shape every aspect of a culture of one era, which is itself
isolated from what it precedes and follows it. Greenblatt uses the same notion
of historical segments to study in parallel the different forms of violation in
both Renaissance drama and society. Foucault is one of the pillars of new
historicism. He presents the major influential figure that inspired new
historicists to form their revolutionary theory that marked the 1980s. However,
there is another key field that inspired new historicism, which is anthropology
and notably the ideas of the American cultural anthropologist Clifford
Geertz.
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