New Approaches to Literary Historiography

Since no well-defined theoretical framework exists for Persian literary historiography, a scholar‘s reference to Western theoretical frameworks regarding this issue is inevitable. Although writing historical memorandums (known also as Tadhkirah) is an ingrained literary tradition in Persian literature, writing literary histories through a set of critical perspectives has rarely been practiced. However, in Western literatures, there have been copious attempts, especially in the 1980s, to offer new critical frameworks for writing literary history and literary historiography. In New Literary History, a series of considerable articles have been published regarding literary history and literary historiography. A statistical analysis of these articles can help the present study distinguish the dominant approaches and the durability of their critical success in proposing a critical framework for composing literary history and literary historiography. After reviewing and analyzing these articles, the study identifies a paradigm shift towards narrative constructivism and new historicism as new frameworks for composing literary history and literary historiography.