An Analysis Of Caryl Churchill's Play Vinegar Tom From The Perspective Of New Historicism

British playwright Caryl Churchill has been named as a feminist writer,but her identity is still difficult to define.In her plays,there is not only the disclosure of the unequal status of the women under man-ruled society,but also the reflection on the predicament of the development of feminism.Most of Churchill's historical plays has the New Historicism color.Under female discourse that has characteristics of times,Churchill,through the combination of history and reality,profoundly analyzes and deconstructs the inherent judgment of historical events.Her historical plays form highly special new historic features,which is more rational to treat history and reality.New Historicism has a broad and profound impact on the Anglo-American literary criticism and literary theory from the late 1970 s to the early 1990 s.In the view of the New Historicists,the essence of the form of historical existence is a text or a discourse,which is inevitably concerned with the narrator's subjective fiction and imagination.New Historicists believe that the emergence and interpretation of the text cannot go beyond the specific historical context and that they contain the social material and historical and cultural content,and that literature is involved not only in the historical process but also in the shaping of reality.By studying Churchill's work,the author can find that most of the Churchill's historical plays are of New Historicism features.By using New Historicist transformation,she gives historical events with a new feminist color.In reshaping the historical texts,the construction of the characters and events carries the subjective color of Churchill.And the newly constructed historical events fully reflect the influence of economic,political,cultural and social factors at that time,and have an impact on people's historical view in the future.Vinegar Tom,which was created in the 1970 s,is a representative work of Churchill's New Historicist plays.Although the study of Churchill at home and abroad has been in full swing,few researchers have interpreted the creation of her plays from the perspective of New Historicism.This paper is to interpret the shaping of historical events and reality in a specific historical context in Churchill's Vinegar Tom by using the theory of thetextuality of history and the historicity of text and to reveal the practical significance of the interpretation.The author hopes to enrich the study of Churchill in China,so that readers can understand Churchill's creative characteristics and creative thoughts in a deeper way,and hope that readers will think more about the history of witch-hunting in the New Historicist theory framework.This paper consists of three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The main contents are as follows:The first part is the introduction.This part first introduces Churchill and her plays systematically,and points out the characteristics and significance of this paper.The second part is the body,consisting of four chapters.The first chapter primarily states the background of New Historicism.By discussing the background and development process of New Historicism,the author realizes that the rise of New Historicism is not only influenced by deconstruction,but by people's unprecedented desalination of historical consciousness,because formalism and the extreme development of European and American cultural circles exist for a long time.Then it analyzes the connection and difference between New Historicism and Historicism.Through the discussion of the development of Historicism and its main ideas,the author draws a conclusion that there are different views on the history between New Historicism and Historicism.Finally,the author analyzes and discusses the mutual infiltration and influence of the New Historicism drama theory and other postmodern literary theories,and expounds the theoretical characteristics of the New Historicist drama.The second chapter first introduces one of the important theories of New Historicism--“The textuality of history”.It will be used to analyze the New Historicist characteristics of Churchill's plays under the female discourse.In Vinegar Tom,the“witches” Churchill created reflect the construction of the history of the witch-hunting movement and the persecuted women in Western Europe.Through the analysis of the dialogue of the female characters in the play,the author analyzes how Churchill's female discourse is involved in the deconstruction and reconstruction of the historical text.The author can get a conclusion that the historical essence of theauthor as a reader received is a product of the rhetoric and imagination of Churchill,which is her understanding of “material” of the witch history.The third chapter first analyzes the causes of the witch movement in Western Europe through the theory of “The historicity of texts”,and explores the relationship between the witch movement and politics,economy,culture and society in the 17 th century.Through the analysis of the dialogues and psychological activities of the characters,it can arouse people's sympathy for the women in the witch-hunting movement,so as to obtain the historical significance of Vinegar Tom and the its possibility of shaping the future.The fourth chapter analyzes the spirit of rebellion of the “witch” in the struggle of male society through the “subversion” and “containment” of New Historicism.It also reflects the historical events of oppression and suppression of male-dominated society,thus revealing the oppression of women as the identity of the witch.The last part is the conclusion which again reviews the full text and states the contents and states the enlightenment from this thesis.It firstly highlights the sense of New Historicism to the drama creation and the historical events.And the importance of analyzing Churchill's plays from the perspective of New Historicism.Finally,it points out the innovation and shortcomings of the thesis,and puts forward the necessity to study Churchill's timely work.