of art written and produced by "minority ethnic groups and postcolonial writers" ("Cultural Criticism"). It will look at any works pertaining to "folk, urban, and mass culture," such aspopular fiction and even soap operas ("Cultural Criticism").

Since Graham Greene'sThe Comedians can be classified as popular fiction, particularly a political thriller, we certainly can use cultural criticism to analyze the book. However, what's also interesting is that the author himself is not an ethnic minority; Greene was an Englishman who worked as a journalist, film and book reviewer, novelist, and who was eventually recruited by MI6. It was while working for MI6 that Greene eventually traveled to Haiti in 1954, staying for only a short time ("Graham Greene"). Greene stayed in the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, which because the hotel setting for the novel, but he renamed it the Hotel Trianon ("Graham Greene"; "The Comedians"). Haiti was at this time also ruled by Francois Duvalier, also called Papa Doc, whose dictatorship significantly influenced the novel ("Graham Greene"). Therefore, while this novel is a popular novel, it should also be noted that it was written by a member of the white European male class, the same class that influences art and literature. Hence, as you analyze the novel using cultural criticism, you can pay attention to details like how Greene portrays the suffering minorities he is writing about. Can any stereotypes be seen? Does his characterizations of minorities seem objective or subjective? You can also think about Greene's characterization of Papa Doc. Does that characterization fit the view of those he ruled over? Or is Greene's characterization influenced more by the political and cultural ideals of white European males? Essentially, as you analyze the book through cultural criticism, you want to explore just how accurately portrayed the marginalized minority culture that influenced the novel.

As we are limited in space, below are a few ideas to help get you started.
New historical criticism is a branch of historical criticism that seeks to understand literature through the author's interpretation of historical, cultural, and social events of a work's time period. More specifically, new historical criticism "assumes that every work is a product of the historic moment that created it" and seeks to understand the interpretation of the moment (OWL, "New Historicism, Cultural Studies (1980s-present)"). It should also be noted that new historicists do not believe that history can be understood objectively. Instead, they believe history can only be understood through the subjective eyes of the observer of the historic moment. For that reason, there is a slight difference between simply historical criticism and new historical criticism. Historians and those who interpret literature through historical criticism only ask two simple questions: "What happened?" "What does the event tell us about history?" In contrast, new historicists ask questions concerning interpretation: "How has the event been interpreted?" "What do the interpretations tell us about the interpreters?" ("New Historicism, Cultural Studies"). Since new historical criticism looks for interpretations of historical events, in order to apply new historical criticism to Graham Greene's novel The Comedians, you'll need to first figure out what what historical events are present in the work and then understand Greene's own interpretation, or own reaction to or feelings about, the event. You'll want to ask yourself the question, what is Greene trying to say about the events in this novel?

There are many contextual clues that help us figure out the historical events the novel refers to and the historic time period in which the novel is set. For one thing, we know that the narrator, called Mr. Brown, is recounting his experiences in Haiti. We also learn in the beginning of the book that, while sailing on a cargo ship from New York to Haiti, he meets Major Jones, who may have fought in Burma during World War II; hence, we know the book is set in Haiti after World War II, which we also know was a terrible time period for Haitians. We also learn that Brown is trying to sell his hotel, which suffered financial loss when Francois Duvalier, also called Papa Doc, became President of Haiti. The name Papa Doc is especially critical for telling the readers about the historic events surrounding the novel. If we research things, we learn that Papa Doc was elected into the presidency in 1957 by the Afro-Haitian majority. He was elected to the title President for Life; therefore, though elected, Papa Doc was a dictator. He particularly exercised his dictatorial authority to eliminate the power of the mulatto elite and any opposition to his own regime ("Francois Duvalier"). Mulatto is a racial term used to refer to individuals born of white fathers and black mothers. In Haiti, mulattoes were not made to be slaves even though their mothers were. They were also educated along with the white class, and due to their education and social statuses, were given "positions in office" and other elite positions ("Mulatto: Haiti"). Even though only 15% of Haiti's population is mulatto, the social hierarchy of mulattoes is still a problem today, a problem that Papa Doc tried to put an end to. However, like all dictators before him, Papa Doc used corrupt means to try and shift power from the mulatto minority to the Afro-Haitian majority, leading to the "murder of an estimated 30,000 Haitians and the exile of many more" ("Francois Duvalier"). He was particularly known for enforcing his power through developing his own personality cult based on voodoo, called vodou in Haiti, in which he declared himself to be a "houngan, or vodou priest" and a Loa, which is a vodou spirit that acts as an intermediary between God and man (Loa).
One event the book speaks of that ties directly to the dictatorship of Papa Doc, complete with all of its cruelty, is the moment Brown learns from his bartender that Doctor Philipot, persecuted by Papa Doc, took his own life. Earlier, in Chapter II, the narrator even says himself, "I was returning without much hope to a country of fear and frustration" and one full of secret police "violence, injustice, and torture" (43; 283). After researching the historical background surrounding the story, we can then examine the author's voice and details to better understand how the author is interpreting the surrounding history and the author's thoughts and feelings concerning the history. An author's voice is the author's attitude toward the subject matter. We can glean the author's voice through diction, or word choices, like in the quotes above, and through events told in the story

Graham Greene’s 1965 novel The Comedians is particularly well-suited for dissection from the perspective of the school of New Historical Criticism.  Greene, like his still-living (and still publishing) contemporary David Cornwell (aka, John le Carre), was a former operative for British intelligence whose passion for writing would draw heavily from the occasionally sordid details of those years spent in the world of espionage.  Also like Cornwell/le Carre, Greene harbored an intense dislike for what he viewed as an overbearing and ill-informed role in world affairs by the new global superpower, the United States.  Both of these authors’ bodies of work are reflective of the enduring bitterness born of visibly observing the decline of their own country’s prominence in the world while the young, dumb upstart, America, bumbled its way through one foreign policy mishap after another. (Note, these are not the views of this educator, but are the views of the authors being discussed.)

In The Comedians, Greene is able to give full-weight to the theme of the deleterious ramifications of American naiveté in its conduct of foreign policy.  In this sense, application of Historical and New Historical Criticism is a fairly straightforward matter.  The 1950s and 1960s were turbulent periods in global affairs, with the Cold War machinations of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. playing havoc with a so-called “Third World” undergoing the chaotic and transformative processes of decolonization.  Greene’s personal biography and background as a member of the British social and cultural elite, and as an observer of British and American conduct in the lesser developed regions of the world, provided a particularly cynical perspective that, tinged with the often-condescending and arrogant perspective from which the British upper-classes and diplomatic and intelligence services viewed the world, allows for considerable room for criticism through the prism of New Historicism. 

Greene’s antipathy towards the American way of the world is best personified in The Comedians in the person of Mr. Smith, the former American presidential candidate whose second act in life is to export his and his wife’s nutritional preferences to Haiti, a nation in which much of the population was fortunate to have anything to eat, let alone the vegetarian fare the Smith’s envision making available to these economically destitute masses.  As Mrs. Smith describes her husband’s unsuccessful presidential campaign early in the novel, “He’s an idealist.  Of course, for that very reason, he stood no chance.”  The Smiths represent for Greene the more benign but no less destructive American influence in global affairs, the well-intentioned idealistic amateurs who will only make matters worse before it’s all over.  When the local regime is dominated by an autocratic sociopath like Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, with his loyal and infinitely brutal house guard, the Tonton Macoutes, one can only contemplate the old proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  

Now, a key component of “New Historical Criticism” is, of course, the perspective of the critic.  That would be the student assigned to read Greene’s novel.  The contemporary critic of today has the benefit of hindsight in examining the political and social contexts in which The Comedians was written.  The passage of time, however, has not made Greene’s writings less relevant, as major powers continue to meddle or intervene in the affairs of smaller countries, and ignorance and naiveté are constants of the decision-making processes of the former.  The “great power” prism through which foreign policy decisions were made for half-a-century may have diminished greatly with the end of the Cold War, but the basic dynamics remain largely the same, even more so with the reemergence of Russia as an active player in world affairs and the Chinese as a rapidly emerging regional power.  Whether and how to become involved in the problems of a smaller, less-developed country continues to confound American decision-makers, with the detachment characteristic of uncertainty and/or moral ambivalence arguably the greater danger.  As the conscience and wisdom of Greene’s story, Dr. Magiot, writes late in The Comedians,

“Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate.” 

A novel the plot of which takes place primarily in the Caribbean island-nation of Haiti (which actually shares an island with the Dominican Republic to the west) and was written during the turbulent period of the 1960s, when decolonization was still winding down and the legacy of Western imperialism was very much being felt across the less-developed world, Graham Greene’s The Comedians cannot help but evoke reactions from all sides of the political debate.  Greene himself, a former journalist and intelligence officer for his native Britain, was famously left-wing in his own political outlook, and was a vocal critic of American foreign policy in the post-World War II era.  The perfect storm of factors, therefore, existed for the publication of The Comedians, and the novel definitely struck a chord with liberal critics.  As a critic for the New York Times wrote at the time of the novel’s publication:

“In The Comedians, despair is there, despair at the death of the good Communist doctor and the would-be-good confidence trickster, Major Jones; despair at evil triumphant, sustained by dollar-aid from the U.S.A. And even Gogool is there (or her near-relatives) when the narrator attends a voodoo ceremony in the hills.” [http://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/23/books/greene66-comedians.html]

This, however, is a reflection of the Anglo-Saxon experience.  The perspective of those of African descent, including African Americans, had lacked a voice until, in 2003, a group of black film critics, authors, and others involved in journalism and the arts banded together to form the African American Film Critics Association.  The AAFCA, as one of the founding members noted, was created out of a shared interest in advancing works born of the African experience, to give a greater voice to black artists and critics, and to ensure that the African American perspective was represented:

“Mindful of our shared concerns – regarding the failure of the film industry to promote images and themed stories from the African Diaspora – we agreed to organize a collective of Black film critics, in response to this pervasive issue.”

As noted, this perspective, as a formal expression of African American heritage, did not exist when Greene’s novel was published in 1966.  Certainly, blacks had informed opinions on novels like The Comedians, but their role in the mainstream press with respect to the field of film criticism was very limited, and their influence on the entertainment industry negligible – a legacy of the histories of slavery and segregation.  One can really only speculate, therefore, as to what that perspective would be with respect to The Comedians.  Again, Greene’s politics swung heavily to the left, and he was very critical of American foreign policy, which he viewed as naïve and destructive (somewhat ignoring his own country’s considerable role in creating much of the world’s problems to begin with).  The brutal dictatorship of real-life Haitian dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was, fairly or not, viewed by many as an indirect consequence of the history of Western imperialism, and the U.S. military interventions in Haiti during the 1990s, while benevolent in intent, would have likely been viewed by the British author, who died several years before the 1994 invasion, as indicative of U.S. imperial bumbling.  In this, he would have likely found common ground with many among the African American community, who correctly recognize the connections between the slave trade of the past and contemporary socioeconomic problems that continue to plague that community.  African American criticism would certainly agree with the assessment that European and/or American intervention in the Caribbean, or Latin America, Africa, or Southeast Asia would constitute yet another manifestation of Western imperialist aggression against non-white peoples. 

At the time The Comedians was written and published, the civil rights movement in the United States was reaching its peak.  Brown v. The Board of Education had occurred in 1954, but discrimination against blacks, and economic policies that were widely viewed among African Americans as prejudicial, continued to be the subject of considerable domestic debate and increasing turmoil in the United States, and within that context, Greene’s novel would have struck a chord.  Greene’s characters, especially Misters Brown and Smith, represent both the venality and idiocy inherent in American foreign policy, and the condescending approach of the well-intentioned but hopelessly naïve Mr. Smith would be a familiar visage to many African Americans.  With the war in Vietnam escalating, and the perception of disproportionate numbers of young blacks being drafted and sent to fight in Southeast Asia, the symbolism in Greene’s novel would have been very popular among African Americans.  That no data exists illustrating the number of blacks who read The Comedians, or who saw the film adapted from the novel, it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions.  The theme of Greene’s story, however, would undoubtedly have been well-received.