The 'word' of the past represents the 'world' of the past...

08 September 1995 | ‘Zoom’ in Context! 

#memoriesfromdiaries 💕

From 26 years ago…

Do you agree that, in order to have a richer and fuller understanding of a given ‘text’ we need to ‘recover’ its original context?

Well, let’s demonstrate this argument with the help of my diary entry, jotted down this very same day, 26 years ago, 08 September 1995!

If diaries are read as ‘texts’, then,

this particular text reads,

Got Zoom! (bubble gum)

As we all know, in the present context, the word ‘Zoom’ would connote to mean a popular video teleconferencing software.

However, back then, the word ‘Zoom’ was quite popular among all of us in our HSC days, as one of the famous bubble gums, something like the famous ‘Big Fun’ bubble gum!

So if a reader were to read this particular text today, without a cursory understanding of the context, they may not get the proper meaning at all!

To them, without a grounding in its context, it would connote a completely different meaning altogether!

So yes!

Be it a word or a phrase, an object or an event –

A poem or a play, a novel or a painting – they are all products of a specific time and place! Ain’t it?

That’s hence the New Historicists pay close attention to the historical context of a literary text!

So what then is the difference between the New Historicists and the Old Historicists?

Quite simple!

To the Old Historicists, literature is foregrounded, while history is relegated to the background!

However, to the New Historicists, both literature and history are to be read in a parallel fashion!

That’s because the context in itself becomes a co-text, where –

the word of the past represents the world of the past!

Like in this case, the Zoom of the past, represents the good ol’ bubble gum of the past!

Repeating the question yet again –

Do you agree that, in order to have a richer and fuller understanding of a given ‘text’ we need to ‘recover’ its original context?

The poststructuralists in general, and the New Historicists in particular would answer, ‘Yes’!

That’s because the ‘text’ always has a huge significance for the culture in which it is produced!

That’s hence the poststructuralists would have us believe that all meaning is generated in situ, -

Or in other words –

All meaning that’s attributed to a text, is generated in a particular social milieu - a particular time and place!

New Historicists would want to call a spade a spade!

To this extent, they would use a spade to uncover the sociocultural context that made possible this particular word – Zoom – written down 26 years ago!

One added reason on why the archives matter to the New Historicists, you see!😍

By which means, they try to connect the text to its context! 

What it was to live in that particular period of time! 

To purchase a ‘Zoom’ bubble gum?

To this end, in their quest to uncover the context of a text, the New Historicists then rummage through a whole lot of disciplines including history, sociology, anthropology, economics and lots more!

In short, there is a mash up or a medley of the literary and the non-literary text!

Without this contextual blend or mix up, one cannot in any way arrive at a fuller and richer understanding of a literary text, they feel! 

And so do we! 🤗