Mohammad Ghazali’s Letters from the Perspective of New Historicism

Abstract

In the 1980s, after post-structural criticism, "New Historicism" appeared through the work of Stephen Greenblatt as a response to traditional historicism. A new historian believes that literary texts have been interwoven with other discourses and rhetoric structures and they constitute a part of the history that is being written. We gain knowledge about this period through works written at the end of the Salgoqian reign in Iraq nearly after one century and it demonstrates the power of historiography in the Saljoqian period. Social circumstances and daily life of people in that time are not clear due to the decay of historiography and limited sources; however, Mohammad Ghazali's letters are one of the significant works of the Saljoqian period which provides a report on discourses and political, social, and cultural issues of the same period and opens a window to the said historical period. New Historicism is seeking a link between literature and public culture of a period and in general, any cultural text. Taking advantage of this theory in rereading and interpreting Ghazali's letter can reveal the timepiece and uncover the latent discourses that are hidden under apparent discourse.

Keywords

• gazali
• saljoqian
• letters
• discourse
• new historicism