Abstract:

In the 1980s, under the leadership of Stephen Greenblatt, a new perspective was brought to literary studies and history was re-evaluated with an approach other than traditional understandings. This new approach, known as new historicism, is closely related to history and literature. Unlike previous historical theories which think that a literary text reflects the period in which it was written, the new historicism emphasizes how much a literary text is affected by the historical conditions in which it was produced. At the same time, this theory takes into account the social atmosphere of that period and the psychological state of the author. In short, unlike the methods of criticism that evaluate the texts by isolating them from the culture and geography they belong to, the discourse also took into account the social, cultural, political and literary atmosphere in which the texts were formed. Literature in New Historicism is a proof that can be a source of history. New Historicism has basically emerged as a reaction to traditional historical understandings that emphasized the importance of literary works and ignored the non-literary. We see that the New Historicism offers rich examples in terms of perspective. While the new Historicalist critic aims to reveal the contradictions set up by the historian, on the other hand, he reveals an understanding of history that is against traditional history-centered interpretation in the evaluation of the work in question. In this study, New Historicism, which has an important place in literary studies, will be explained through the work "Giorgi Saakadze: The Great Warrior" in terms of the view whether he is a traitor or patriot. The author of the book, translated into Turkish by İbrahim Goradze, draws attention to the fact that the book may be historical fiction, while highlighting history with all its nakedness. In this context, the book provides an opportunity to re-examine the Georgian commander from today's perspective.

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