New historicism is a relatively new criticism that surfaced around the 1960’s. It is part of a much larger concept, Cultural Studies, which draws ideas from many of the concepts we have already worked with. Cultural studies is based around the idea that society has a dominant group that decides the fate of all other minority groups. New historicism emerged as a response to traditional historicism, in which historians tried to determine what was going on at a set time and place. However, the concepts of new historicism state that it is impossible to know what occurred at a given point in time. The only way to know what happened is to look at artifacts and stories that have been passed down. This brings up the issue that only the winners in these past societies were able to record history as they were the only ones with the means to do it. Our generation is stripped of the minority view of the world from the past. When reading literature with a new historicism view, the reader should view the text as a political and religious statement, where it reflects the society it was written in. The reader needs to look for the structures of power within that society and read the text from the minority people’s viewpoint.
Los grupos de cuentos por Jorge Sagastume son experiencias diferentes de la Guerra Sucia en Argentina que empezó en 1976. Toda la gente dentro Argentina tuvieron experiencias muy diferente con la Guerra Sucia. Las experiencias de los personajes en los cuentos dar experiencias diferentes para gente diferente durante la Guerra Sucia. Los cuentos no dan todas las historias para la Guerra Sucia, pero algunas cuentos como “Anasztazia” y “Amor en días de Gran Orden”, dan las experiencias de mujeres durante la Guerra Sucia. Hombres y mujeres tienen muchos experiencias diferentes en el día a día, especialmente en esta época. Pero durante este Guerra los diferentes experiencias son magnificado. Las vidas de Celeste Anasztazia, y la hija del general son bien ejemplos de la violencia y abuso que experimentan.