In this study, John Brannigan explains the development of new historicism and cultural materialism and demonstrates both their uses and weaknesses as critical practices. Exemplary readings of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Yeats’ Easter 1916 serve to show and criticize the new historicist and cultural materialist interpretative strategies. Brannigan explores the potential future of the theories and the debates surrounding their controversial position in literary studies.