A postmodern reading of the meaning of history in the two plays “Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard and “Death of YazdGerd” by Bhram Beizaei

Subject Areas : شعر

Behzad Gaderi Sahmi ¹ , Seyyedeh Anahit Kazzazi ²

1 - Faculty Member, University of Tehran.
2 - Graduate Student, English Language & Literature, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch.

Received: 2012-09-21 Accepted : 2012-09-21 Published : 2009-11-01

Keywords: تاریخ, پسامدرنیسم, مرگ یزدگرد, آرکادیا, history, postmodernism, Arcadia, Death of YazdGerd,

Abstract :

In recent decades there have been many critiques on the meaning of history and matters that historians have paid attention to in postmodern scientific and philosophical gatherings. The most important consequence of these critiques is challenging the task of history in providing an objective and scientific image of the past events. This relative perspective on the accuracy and authenticity of history vacillates in the achievement of the historical truth through questioning its nature and essence and asserts that historians have constantly replicated the past events through their power of imagination and dependency on personal beliefs. In harmony with deterioration of the meaning of history in philosophy, literary writers also decided to narrate the history in their works as the wanted. The offspring of this approach is a type of literature which could be termed “Replacement of History” in Persian. This research presents a comprehensive. postmodernist overview of history and then compares two replacements of history “Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard and “Death of YazdGerd” by Bhram Beizaei from this viewpoint.

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