【正文】 with the help of the wellknown New Historicist dictum of “historicity of texts” and “textuality of history” separately. In chapter 3, the author would discuss the influence of history on the text which makes the play a realistic recording of the Elizabethan Era. And the author would discuss in chapter 4 the influence of the text on the historical context—the historical power of Hamlet. On the whole, the author would do a research on Shakespeare’s Hamlet from the perspective of New Historicism in order to show the important value of this play to analyze interinfluence between the play and the historical context of the Elizabethan Era, and to approach again to the relationship between history and text.2. An Introduction to New Historicism The definition of New Historicism According to the New World Encyclopedia, “New Historicism is an approach to literary criticism and literary theory based on the premise that a literary work should be considered a product of the time, place, and historical circumstances of its position rather than as an isolated work of art or text”. New Historicism suggests literature must be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. New Historicists aim simultaneously to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas. Unlike previous historical criticism, which limited itself to simply demonstrating how a work reflected its time, it evaluates how the work is influenced by the time in which the author wrote it. It also examines the social sphere in which the author moved the psychological background of the writer, and the books and theories that may have influenced him or her. In New Historicists’ eyes, “a text can have neither a unified ideology nor an entirely aesthetic function” (Colebrook 2425). Major theories of New Historicism New Historicism borrows the “Power Theory” from the famous PostStructuralist Michel Foucault to analyze in depth the detailed relations between history and text. In Foucault’s theory, power refers the relations of domination and resistance which saturate our social, political and cultural relations, but it can also refer to the ways in which power is a productive, even pleasurable, part of our existence. It is everywhere。 on the other hand, he was a submissive subject under the control of the historical context who had to yield his own initiative to the mon and acceptable institutions of the society. The dynamic role Shakespeare played in creating Hamlet Shakespeare, a secret Catholic sympathizer We can summarize the dynamic role Shakespeare played with the details in this play. Greenblatt has made a name for himself both as a preeminent Shakespeare scholar and as one of the founders of the “New Historicist” approach to literary criticism. Central to his approach is the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history, Shakespeare applied his own faiths and emotions to Hamlet just to fight against Puritanism in secret. Let’s look back to Shakespeare’s life background. We can arrive at a conclusion that Shakespeare is a secret Catholic sympathizer. There are several evidences to prove it. The most obvious cue is that Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, is a secret Catholic sympathizer in Shakespeare’s childhood, so Shakespeare is influenced by his family on some level. The reference of the first part of the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare—Shakespeare’s life, it writes “John, like his son William, proved to be ‘upwardly mobile’. Having prospered for some twenty years, John ran into difficulties in the late 1570s. He was let off paying weekly for poor relief。 as stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun。s greatest playwrights were active during her reign, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare. With her permission, professional theaters were built in England for the first time, attracting 15,000 theatergoers per week in London, a city of 150,000 to 250,000. The Shakespearean sonnet, Spenserian stanza, and dramatic blank verse also came into practice during the period. During the time of Elizabethan theater, plays about tragedy and revenge were very mon and a regular convention seemed to be formed on what aspects should be put into a typical revenge tragedy. Shakespeare’s works are the greatest representation of religion and art from Elizabethan England. In 1603, Hamlet was premiered, which was very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theater. It followed every convention required to classify it as a revenge play quite perfectly. And at the same time, it reveals the faith of Catholic sympathizers secretly so it was popular and shocked the audience at that time. Characters in Hamlet: typical figures of the Elizabethan era Every historical context would give birth to some typical figures, some of whose personalities are influenced, even caused by the historical context. So would the Elizabethan era. There existed various kinds of people in this historical context, some of whom hold many distinctive characteristic caused by this specific context. Two kinds of these typical figures are reflected in Hamlet by the characters in the play. And the portrayal of these characters makes the play a more realistic reading of the Elizabethan era. role of Hamlet in the textHamlet is the representative of many English Renaissance young men. His living states and personalities are deeply influenced by the historical context. In Renaissance period, humanism was the essence of Renaissance, formed in man’s mind. Shakespeare was one of the best representatives of the English humanists. In his work Hamlet, the role of Hamlet fully embodies the spirit of humanism.Wittenberg was a place that