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Reviews 223 Hamilton, Paul, Historicism (The N e w Critical Idiom), London, Routledge, 1996; paper; pp. ix, 226; R.R.P. US$10.95. 'At last, the book w e have been waiting for!' I thought on seeing the t i t l e of this book in the 'New Critical Idiom' series. Historicism is a pervasive m o d e of critical practice, especially for those w h o are engaged in the teaching of literature that faUs within the medieval-toEarly Modern continuum. Yet historicism is not held universally in high regard. Far from it. M u c h postmodern literary theory is premised upon formalism of one kind or another, and formalism is unsympathetic to historicism. Critical theory is often indifferent to historicism, if not overtly hostile to it. It is to be expected, then, that a book entitled Historicism wtil be defensive, proclaiming on the one hand its affiliation with acknowledged theory and on the other its right to some degree of difference. As w e might expect, Paul Hamilton's book is both defensive and assertive. This is no bad thing, but at times he is at undue pains to demonstrate that historicists really are theorists after aU. In other words, he allows the terms of the debate to be dictated by the supposed antagonist. In many respects this is not only a fine and important book but also a brave one. Following a partially linear treatment in the first two chapters, 'History and Historicism' and 'The Rise of Historicism', Hamilton surveys historicism along the horizontal axis of time itself. These chapters take us from the inception of historicism in Greek thought, through the Renaissance, to the Enlightenment and beyond, while drawing attention also to specific issues. The three remaining chapters m a y be charted more on a vertical, or conceptual axis, which place historicism within frames of thought which have flourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In short, the book skiUuUy maintains a difficult balance between a chronological and a conceptual treatment. Most readers, if I a m one to judge by, wiU expect more on prevailing modes of historicist practice than they get. The treatment of N e w Historicism especially is disappointingly perfunctory, scoring only 12 pages out of 209. This small section is also very narrow in 224 Reviews range, concentrating almost entirely on Stephen Greenblatt and Clifford Geertz. No-one would challenge the importance of Greenblatt and Geertz, but the ambit of N e w Historicism in America is much wider than Hamilton's coverage would suggest. Another weakness, to m y mind, is the omission of significant historians from the debate: such is the unseen but felt tyranny of the Uterary theorists. In a phrase or two historiographers like Hayden White and Dominick La Capra' (p. 163) are dismissed almost as soon as they are mentioned. A book of this size should also have had an index. Readers have a right to some assistance in retracing their steps through so much tricky territory. The main problem with this book, and i t is for m e a very serious one, is that i t is too difficult for the audience i t seeks to enlighten. I f Hamilton's Historicism is indeed designed as 'essential reading for any student new to the sometimes bewildering field of literary theory' (as the pre-title page proclaims), i t makes excessive demands of that student. For instance, Hamilton's own secure understanding of thinkers and theorists leads him to quote their names sometimes almost as coded summaries of the ideas he would associate with those names. In a single paragraph on perspectivism (pp. 110-11), he conjures forth the names of Nietzsche, Freud, Althusser, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Marx and Foucault. To one who is not already an adept, the result wtil probably be increased bewilderment. Labelling aU the trees does not help to map the wood. Christopher Wortham Department of English University of Western AustraUa Henken, EUssa R., National Redeemer: Owain Glyndwr in Welsh Tradition, N e w York, Cornell University Press 1996; pp. xii, 250; map; R.R.P. US$47.00 (cloth), US$18.95 (paper). Owain Glyndwr...

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