Political and Socio-Cultural Poetics of the Novel the Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis: A New Historicist Perspective

This paper intends to explicate the novel ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ by Walter Tevis with a new historicist lens to explore the complex layers of politics of representation and power relations with a view to produce a close -reading of issues like contemporary (Mid-20th century, 1950s and 1960s) socio-political and cultural context of America, Cold War, Communism, Christianity, Capitalism, Atheism, critical racial issues, western concept of beauty as well as moral values and beliefs, considering not only the literary discourse but other non-literary cultural productions and forms like visual discourse (TV, movies) and sports, in this context, Chess. The paper has adopted new historicist theoretical framework to shed light also on the biographical, historical, socio-political and cultural contexts of when the novel was written and published (Mid-1970s and published in 1983). The temporal and spatial setting of the novel, mid-20th century and Kentucky, America have also been analyzed from the same theoretical framework. The objective of this paper is explorative and analytical in nature in its reading of the novel, by applying exegesis in the form of content analysis and textual analysis. The paper has also drawn substantially from cultural studies, research methods like close reading of visual materials and other non-literary cultural productions. Institutional analysis and ideology critique approach has been used to critically analyze how the orphanage (Methuen Home) has been portrayed and represented and what impressions it gives about the nature and operation of power dynamics and dominant ideologies within the orphanage and also in the larger context of America.