Jane Austen`s Northanger Abby and the Persuasion with Special References to Greenblatt`s, Sinfield`s and acherey`s Theories A New Historicist Perspective

New Historicism is often criticized for its pessimistic vision that human agency of anysubversive act of resistance is ultimately co-opted by power. This is the central theme of Invisible Bullets , the most anthologized and quoted New Historicist article by Greenblatthimself as the founder and the most distinguished practitioner of the movement. This study,however, will demonstrate that the specific characterizations into an underlying principle ofNew Historicism in general, which is not by any extension a coherent and concerted criticalmovement. The article, then, starts out by adumbrating Greenblatt`s own critical practice todemonstrate that he is not against reading subversion in the works that it studies drawing oninsights offered by his practice. To read the works against the grain of traditional historicaland formalist studies Macherey`s concept of The text`s unconscious and the text`s faultline by Sinfield try to theorize how the literary texts are sites of conflict and contradictionwhere subordinate or dissident elements clashed with dominant discourses. On the other side,we have the theory of circulation of social energies' by Greenblatt who cast light on thoseparts in a literary work which are fundamental in portraying inconsistency and contradictionwhich are continually reconstructed. In fact, New Historicist accounts of the works do notmake any attempts to specify what the literary works mean, but see them as sites wheremeaning is contested. Literary works are worth being analyzed not because they makepossible access to something beyond them, but as themselves locations of power andresistance to power. Furthermore, while works of art ( Northanger Abby and Persuasion) cantake as their subject the performance and representational practices which produce thedivisions of power , these very works can also play a role in that very process.

Keywords:

the text`s unconscious , fault-line , circulation of social energy