NEW HISTORICISM: What Happened to Sophie Wilder by Chris Beha

New Historicism is a school of literary theory, grounded in critical theory, that developed in the 1980s, primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s.^[1]

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. Michel Foucault based his approach both on his theory of the limits of collective cultural knowledge and on his technique of examining a broad array of documents in order to understand the episteme of a particular time. New Historicism is claimed to be a more neutral approach to historical events, and to be sensitive towards different cultures.

(from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_historicism)

The Story:

Through a filter of wisdom mixed with sadness and a sort of spiritual confusion, Charlie recounts the story of his relationship with the Sophie Wilder of the title, which began in an undergraduate creative writing class at a small New Jersey liberal arts college. Sophie impresses Charlie with her superior literary knowledge and taste. Her parents are dead; so is his father; they are the two best writers in class; they fall in love. But the terms of their relationship are always dictated by Sophie. She sleeps with other men, including Charlie's cousin.

Charlie accepts such humiliations as the price to pay for access to such a singular woman. It takes a certain courage or foolishness to write about undergraduate love between aspiring writers, and there are scenes here that are precious or uncomplicatedly nostalgic - "This was on one of those long nights we spent in Sophie's room, chain-smoking Camels and drinking Jameson" - but in general Beha takes his young characters seriously while remaining at a respectfully critical distance.

After college, Charlie and Sophie lose touch. She gets married and publishes a well-received book of short stories. Then she gives up writing and becomes a practicing Catholic, and it is this atypical turn that thrusts the novel beyond self-referential sentimentalism. When her husband, Tom, refuses to take care of his estranged father, who is dying of cancer, Sophie determines to do it herself. She feeds him, gives him medicine, cleans him, reads to him, prays for him. In his apartment she discovers a collection of newspaper articles, from which she pieces together the story of the fire that killed Tom's mother when he was a boy.


The Criticism:

The book is about the growth and progression of Charlie. Charlie (the male lead), is Christoper Beha's (author) alter ego.

The theme of the book aims to highlight what life is like in college. Also, the book is written in a modern way. It has a fairly simple concept, but has an interesting story. Further more, it makes the reader understand the life faced by writers in modern times.