Rethinking the Necessity of Critical Thinking and Its Functions in Tadhkirah (Memorandum) and Literary Historiography

The field of the history of literature is the genealogy of the culture of thought. Literary biography (Tadhkirah), as the first generation of the history of Persian literature, reflects the rise and fall of culture, literature, the acceptance of tradition and traditionalism, and the mirror of literary flow that can show the process of evolution and degradation-imitation in the literature. Tadhkirah contributes to the development of literary research, the introduction of literary traditions, indigenous language and literature, and national identity. However, despite the advantages of the Tadhkirah, there are flaws such as superficiality, celibacy, prostration, succinct writing, and chanting that have found their way into a number of Tadhkirahs. The history of literature needs to have a pathological look within itself in order to achieve growth and maturity. Pathology means identifying the negative aspects and purifying Tadhkirah. The pathology of Tadhkirah requires the use of ‘critical thinking’ to avoid illusory traditions and expositors and to acquaint the reader with the situational context of the creation of the text. Critical thinking provides us with the tools for the purposeful, accurate, and scientific evaluation of Tadhkirah.

This descriptive-analytical study was done using the library method.It aimed to use a pathology approach in the field of history and literature in order to show the strengths and weaknesses of such studies inductively.

The most basic tool for recognizing Tadhkirah is through using a critical approach. The pathology of Tadhkirah reveals some shortcomings and inadequacies. Therefore, it is necessary to look critically at the study of tradition, developments, and the decline of imitation to understand why in a historical period literary works were profound while in another period they became weak. Literary criticism mediates between the writer of the literary work and the ordinary reader by presenting the subtleties of literary works to the general public and streamlining the evolution of literary tastes. Criticizing Tadhkirah can identify stylistic, rhetorical, sociological, and psychological aspects in the production of science and knowledge.

Tadhkirahs and histories of literature are a reflection of the culture and thought of a nation, the ups and downs of literature and culture. They can play a role in the analysis and understanding of literary texts. These works can well show the two opposites (evolution versus degeneration-imitation) in the context of the dynamics and statics of forms and themes. Tadhkirahs play a role in the expansion of literary studies, the acquisition of methods and criteria in literary historiography, the explanation of critical discourse and approaches, the cognition of study of literary trends and reflection of historical-literary events, the recognition of literary traditions, national identity and the interpretation of traditions, the description of aesthetic taste and the method of critique of literary predecessors, introducing native literature and ethnic, local and regional languages​. But ambiguity, superficial generalization, haste, ignorance, exaggeration, rhetoric, love and hate, avoidance of firm and justified views have penetrated Tadhkirah. It is necessary to turn to critical thinking and pathology of such research.Using critical thinking in the study and analysis of Tadhkirah could lead to avoiding false imitation, and perverted literary traditions for pragmatism, destiny, passivity, perversion, bigotry, and contention against promotion and improvement, restoring data functions and improving the level of information of in the expansion of historical information in Tadhkirahs literary, attention to  the level of perceptions and expectations in today's readers of the Tadhkirah and the contemporary researchers with the situational context of the creation of the text of the Tadhkirah and the perceptions and expectations of the traditional memoirist, improving the level of depth and value of the reader today than the correct and accurate analysis of the writer of Tadhkirah in recognizing the evolution of the past and encouraging the reader to avoid love and hate, intentions and narrow-mindedness, helping to the typology, classification and periodization of literary trends by combining critical thinking with attitudes towards literary genres and forms, elevation of the level of literary theorizing and accurate and correct analysis of literary texts and mull over ethnic, racial, religious, ideological and political limitations, etc.