Definition+Essay

__Historicism __

While watching the movie “Pearl Harbor” the typical viewer would watch this movie in a way that they are analyzing the history of the era in which the movie takes place to understand it. The typical viewer would say to his or herself, “Well this took place during the early 1940s so that’s why people in the movie are acting the way they do, or why they have the technology they have.” One would not actually think about this while he or she is watching the movie because most of the time all of this would be happening subconsciously; the viewer would not even realize what he or she is doing throughout the whole movie. If the viewer doesn’t make this connection then the whole movie would most likely not make any sense at all. It’s like watching a lesson in school and not paying attention and at the end not understanding anything that just went on. This occurrence happens to us all the time without and realization and is an actual term called “Historicism”. Historicism is the concept in which the reader of a piece of literature searches through the history of the text to find the true meaning of the text, however, it can be used for more then just literature and is as important to us as natural common sense (Delahoyde, Introduction To Literature).

The novel, “The Great Gatsby”, provides a huge opening for the historicism lens and is actually necessary for some points in the book. “The Great Gatsby” takes place in the 1920s, also known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’, which was a time in American history where late-night parties, alcohol, etc. were a huge trend among all the classes of American society, poor or rich. These times were very different from current times, especially with the war. One of the greatest points of historicism in the book is the mention of the “Great War.” “I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War.” (Fitzgerald 3). The Great War comes out later renamed as “World War I” but back in the 20s there was only one world war and since it was such a great war, it was literally called that. An individual who only was reading this book and didn’t use the historicism lens to analyze that quote provided above may not know what war Fitzgerald is even talking about or why he referred to that war by that name. Once put through a historicism lens that quote suddenly makes a lot more sense. Another really good example of historicism in the text is the band playing at Gatsby’s party. “A celebrated tenor sung in Italian, and a notorious contralto had sung in jazz” (Fitzgerald 46). If the reader does not use the element of historicism in this passage of text then he or she would not understand the difference in musical genres that were popular back in the 1920s compared to today. Back in the 20s the popular genre of the day was jazz and often times many different elements were incorporated into that, like the singing in Italian. For people back then this was completely normal and they enjoyed that music quite a lot. A lot of the novel has elements such as these and to be understood they must be looked at through a historicism perspective, if not most of the book would make no sense at all. People during this time completely understand this because they were personally experiencing it.

Historicism can also be experienced personally, not only through movie and/or text. One of my personal experiences with historicism is the election of our current president, Barack Obama. The election of president Obama was a groundbreaking election; Barack Obama is America’s first African American president, which with the history that America has with all of its slavery, racism, civil rights, etc. is a very groundbreaking movement. If an individual understands the past America has had with racism then the election of Obama to president would make so much sense in why it’s such a moving election. In 8th grade I personally experienced this because during the day all the classes were pretty much stopped to watch the election on television. Another way I have personally experienced historicism is by going to the Museum of Natural History a couple different times as a kid. Museums are filled with history and historicism perspectives all around. To go to a museum every single person must be thinking in the historicism perspective, because if not there is literally no point to go to the museum at all. Once in that historicism perspective one can truly enjoy the museum a lot and see how important most of the stuff there is, which I clearly remember doing as a kid, that’s what made it such an awesome place to go visit. Historicism can be used many times in person and the concept of historicism is used in many outside resources as well. Historicism is used in many different ways in outside resources, such as movies and books. One book that is filled with historicism is “Born On The Fourth Of July.” This novel is filled with historicism because it has a lot to do with the Vietnam war and a returning injured soldier who suddenly turns very anti-war. In one particular scene the soldier is observing the movement taking place in Washington D.C. and how all the anti-war protesters, mostly hippies, are completely stripping down naked and jumping into the pool of reflection. This would seem very strange to a normal reader of the novel, but if the reader understands that during these times people like the hippies, who were very into drugs and completely against the war, were as strange as in this passage and as crazy as they were then it would make perfect sense. To understand that, the reader would need to look through a historicism lens and see that things like this actually happened and made sense at the time. Another big outside source of historicism is the HBO series “Band Of Brothers,” which tracks E Company during World War II in Europe. The many different events these men go through can only be understood through historicism because it is based of history and people of another time. In fact, the whole show is a lot more enjoyable once viewed during the historicism perspective. Historicism is a very important concept that many people don’t even know about but use all the time.

Historicism can be used all the time, and is used by everyone almost everyday without knowing it. It’s found in literature, movies and more outside sources and can even be experienced personally. Historicism is not just a term to know in English class but however a device that many people use to view and/or read something and by using this device it can make many different things ten times more enjoyable and increase importance in particular objects or events. Without historicism our society would be lost with understanding and would probably not even be able to process the historical importance of things happening all around us. This is the importance of Historicism and how it is used around us all the time.

__Citations __ 1. Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

2. produce, which cultures, and reproduce themselves. These critics. "New Historical Criticism." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/new