A New Historicist Approach to Faiz’s Revolutionary and Patriotic Poetry: A Study

Abstract

The theory of New Historicism is a Post-modern conception. New Historicists intend to comprehend the work of art through its “cultural context” and strive to make out “intellectual history through literature”. In this way literature becomes the reflection of the society.This study points out some of the literary works to establish the proposition that contextual references have always been the part of the creative writing. This research paper particularly seeks to explore various assumptions and propositions of New Historicism recurrent in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry. Faiz in his poetry has emerged as a voice against the injustice and socio-political strife prevailing during his times. This study traces out those historical incidents which persuaded him to express the wrongs of the society in his poems. InMichael Delahoyde words,“New Historicism seeks to find meaning in a text by considering the work within the framework of the prevailing ideas and assumptions of its historical era” (n.pag). Similarly this study also interprets Faiz’srevolutionary poetry during the then stern political environment encouraging the present youth to fight against suppression and injustice.