Study On Greenblatt's Self-fashioning Theory

Greenblatt's self-shaping theory is based on the study of six English Renaissance writers such as Thomas Moore and Shakespeare,and is also the key to Greenblatt's theory of cultural poetics.On the surface,Greenblatt's “self-formation” explores the formation of personal identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to prove that the self is shaped in various social forces such as churches,governments,and families.However,in fact,this similar process can still be seen in the formation of modern human self.On the one hand,this similarity indicates that human beings do not have innate subjectivity,and that self is actually a product of construction.It also shows that Greenblatt's research on the self-religion of the Renaissance has a distinct era significance.In terms of the process of “self-shaping”,Greenblatt believes that the formation of this self-identity can be perceived in literary texts,and in this way can reveal the power structure of the society in which these selfs are located.In the theory of self-formation,literary text is the core place for shaping.It is especially important that self-modeling is not a one-way process.It's a complex circulation of social energy that involves many dimensions such as author,reader,and literary text.Greenblatt used the doctrines including Geertz's anthropology and Foucault's power theory to complete the theoretical shaping,which not only means the interdisciplinary nature of his theory,but also means that Greenblatt oppose New criticism views literature as a self-sufficiency with cultural and political disengagement.If the core of self-shaping theory is human constructiveness,then after the dispelling of subjectivity,Greenblatt expressed his sorrow for this result,so that he even proposed that if he knew that the ego was fictitious,it is also necessary to stick to the point of view,which undoubtedly makes Greenblatt's theory of self-formation into a huge paradox.The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of Greenblatt's self-shaping theory and its paradox in the context of post-modernism,especially in the context of post human,when the constructiveness of human beings is magnified to the extreme.Greenblatt's hesitation about whether the subjectivity has been cancelled has the meaning of rethinking the theory itself,and this in part means the possibility of turning the humanistic tradition back to the signal.Of course,this return is the higher dimensional return after reflection and criticism ultimately points to a very humanistic desire for a perfect form of human life.