When I first read the poem “My Last Duchess,” I found that my literary rankings changes significantly. With all of the flavor that “My Last Duchess” had, it made me feel that I was closest to being a new historicism more than anything. I focus a lot on the history of the text while keeping in mind the culture and time period the poem would have been written in. With that being said I really liked the poem the second time around. The Duke seemed like a power drunk person while the Duchess just got caught in the middle of his lust. She loved to be down to earth and enjoy life outside of money. While on the hand the Duke Had to have things his way. Ferrara was a pretty well-known city in Italy at the time.
I see where you felt like being a new historicism and I agree. When focusing on the background of the text I was able to enjoy it more than the first time I read it because I could actually understand what it was saying once I broke it down and looked at the meaning of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you the first time i read the poem i was kind of clueless on what it all was saying and meant. Although by breaking it into sections and piece by piece figuring out what it was saying i understood it a lot better. So new historic-ism would be my observation also. When you first read its just intelligent words but breaking it down sentence by sentence understanding is a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that quite a few of you are interested in New Historicism. It isn't a method that I had intended to cover thoroughly, but perhaps we will since there appears to be a lot of interest.
ReplyDeleteIf you're "being" this kind of critic, you're a New Historicist; the method itself is New Historicism. :)