By : NUR MURNI BT ABDULLAH NOR ILLYANA BT AHMAD NAZRI

A branch of history which looked at literature of

evidence about economic and political events going on at the time at which the works were produced, and that also looked at historical events to explain the content of literary works. Historical criticism insisted that to understand a literary piece, we need to understand the authors biography and social background, ideas circulating at the time, and the cultural milieu

 New Historicism

Is a theory in literary criticism that suggests literature

must be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Critics using this approach look at the work and consider other writing that may have inspired it or inspired by it , as well as the life of the author and how it relates to the text.

 Old Historicism Insisted that a literary work be read with a sense of

time and place of its creation. This is necessary, insist historical critics, because every literary work is a product of its time and its world. Understanding the social background and the intellectual currents of that time and that world illuminate literary works for later generation of readers.

LONDON

I wandered through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, A mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe. In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear: How the chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackening church appals, And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace-walls. But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse

In the first quatrain, the author is talking about how he is walking through every transitory street. The adjective chartered seems to connote the importance of money to live everyday in this ephemeral world, where everything is focused around money, richness and its value to reach anything. But, in despite of the role of money has in the world and happiness because of its value, many people are dominated by sorrow and sadness. The verses In every cry of every man and in every infants cry of fear are examples of this fact. People are not happy. They are living in fear all the time, inside the dark of a society influenced by materialism. Human beings are loosing the real sense of life.

The materialism of words is reflected in the second quatrain with the mind-forged manacles, which represents peoples preoccupation for money and the dependence to the important institutions. In the third quatrain, the author is comparing two different representations: a chimney-sweeper and a soldier. Both of them are archetypal that represent the most important institutions of that time: Monarchy and the Church, which are the reason of the suffering of human beings. This one has a clear connotation of power and manipulation in society.

The fourth quatrain represents the author talking again about what he hears metaphorically while he is walking through the street. The youthful harlots curse makes reference to the disease of syphilis, very frequent in that time, in the 18th century, which is the principal cause of death. The term harlot has negative connotations, as curse. It is interpreted as something which destroys life and society. Syphilis destroys life, whereas harlots destroy families, and family is the most important part in society, in this case, in English society. The marriage-hearse could be understood as a vehicle in which love and desire combine with death and destruction (Elite Skills classics, 2004).