2.2. Clifford Geertz: the bridge between Anthropology
and New Historicism:
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Like Foucault, Clifford Geertz is considered as another figure
associated with new historicism. He is an American anthropologist, who is
considered to be the web that connects anthropology with the world of literary
studies. He shares with new historicists the belief that the human being is a
creature fully dependent on culture. The main influence of Geertz lies in his
concept of "thick description", a term borrowed from the British philosopher
Gilbert Ryle. Ryle uses the term in his lectures in the 1960s entitled
"Thinking and Reflecting" and "the Thinking of Thoughts : What is 'Le Penseur'
Doing?" in a context of interpreting the human behavior within a particular
situation. In Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry (2001), Thomas
Schwandt provides a concise definition of Ryle's concept of "thick description"
asserting, "It is not simply a matter of amassing relevant detail. Rather to
thickly describe social action is actually to begin to interpret it by
recording the circumstances, meanings, intentions, strategies, motivations and
so on that characterize a particular episode" (255). Ryle's definition of
"thick description" consists of using the different contexts as a way to
interpret thoughts and behaviors. This method presents the basic pillar to have
a "thick", deep and manifold understanding. Geertz uses Ryle's concept in the
context of anthropology. His essay "Thick description: Toward an Interpretive
Theory of Culture"(1973) presents a major reference in which Geertz fully
develops his own view of "thick description". He starts by adding a semiotic
dimension to culture by defining it as a world of signs that need to be
interpreted and then he states that "thick description" is the appropriate
title for anthropology and the right method for ethnography.
Geertz defines "thick description" in comparison with "thin
description" stating that the former allows an adequate, profound account of
meaning by "draw[ing] large conclusions from small but very densely textured
facts" ( "Thick Description" 28) while the latter is a misleading way of
reading and interpreting a culture. Geertz's creative combination of semiotics
and history inspires new historicists and drives them to adopt his concept of
"thick
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description". Stephen Greenblatt includes his own definition of
Geertz's concept, adding that it "could be exceedingly straightforward or
alternatively, exceedingly complex depending on the length of the chain of
parasitical intentions and circumstantial detachments" (Practicing New
Historicism 24). Thick description helps new historicists to examine the
way a culture and its people fashion themselves and to construct the different
meanings out from the textual exchanges, focusing on details to rebuild the
general linguistic, cultural and social image of the past. New historicists,
then use the same method as Ryle and Geertz by studying deeply and "thickly"
the different details of each text, being engrossed in a particular historical
period.
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