It was my friend, Bram Stoker, who told me of the legend of the Wanderer a man who made a bargain with the devil himself, trading his soul for forbidden knowledge and eternal life. Once I would have dismissed such tales as mere fancy but I knew what I had seen. And there is no mind so open as that o[...]

For almost 20 years, new historicism has been a highly controversial and influential force in literary and cultural studies. In "Practicing New Historicism", two of its most distinguished practitioners reflect on its surprisingly disparate sources and far-reaching effects. In lucid and jargon-free p[...]