Criticism of New Historicism in the novel of “An Old Case” by Reza Jolaei

Abstract

 Reza Jolaei is one of the prolific contemporary writers whose fictional works are famous for narrating history.  The novel "An Old Case" tells a historical account of the murder of Mohammad Massoud, a journalist of the Pahlavi period. The following article is an analysis of this novel from the point of view of criticism of modern historicism, Its purpose is to examine the literary works of different periods of history to reveal the power relations and social and ideological structures of each historical period. From this point of view, there is no difference between literary and non-literary texts. Rather, it tries to provide a kind of critical interpretation that examines power relations as the most important context in various texts, and in fact considers the text as a space in which the relationship of power shows itself. and Foucault's theory of discourse. during which he examines the dominant discourses of the Iranian society in that period through the historical narratives of the novel in order to give a clearer picture of these events. The results of the research show that among the discourses represented in the novel “An Old Case”, we can mention the dominant discourses of the imperial army and against it, the Tudeh party, as well as their feedback among intellectuals and the mass of people.