On Bob Dylan’s Poetry Of Counterculture Theme From The Perspective Of New Historicism

Counterculture refers to all protests against mainstream values in the context of a particular era,because of a disapproval of the mainstream culture,disappointment,or an inner protest against mainstream values in pursuit of a higher level of emotional resonance.After the phenomenon of anti-mainstream culture,there will be conflicts at different levels of society,which have evolved into social movements,that is,countercultural movements,due to the intensification of contradictions.Bob Dylan is an American folk singer,poet,and cultural icon.Since 1960 s,Bob Dylan’s classics have been widely circulated especially those poems of counterculture theme,which have made Dylan become the opinion leader and spiritual icon for a generation.As a critical theory,New Historicism focuses on subverting and reading history from a new perspective.Literature participates in the historical process and involves in the shaping of reality as well.New Historicists Montrose was keen to impose the influence of history on literary texts from unofficial historical materials such as anecdotes,and pay attention to the mutual relationship between text and history.New historicists such as Stephen Greenblatt,being concerned about the ideological function of literature,summed up the concept of “subversion and containment”,that is,the dynamic balance between the mainstream elite culture and counterculture.Through the study of Bob Dylan’s poetry,it is found that his poems of countercultural theme were created in the specific historical background,and had reflected the historical politics of the time.Therefore,the historicity of texts and the textuality of history construct the historical metaphor behind the poems,and the politic factor of “subversion and containment” converts the counterculture poems into a medium of subverting the mainstream culture and is contrarily suppressed by the mainstream culture.