Hist and Lit Gets a Journal

Making History and Literature more accessible to non-concentrators is one of the goals of a new student-run journal to be published at the end of this semester.

The journal, which will be officially sponsored by the College’s History and Literature Department, will be named “Historia,” a latin word meaning both history and fictional narrative, according to Vera Keller ’02 one of the co-editors.

Steven H. Biel, director of studies in History and Literature, said that since the journal was “conceived, planned and developed” by the students, and was entirely student-run, his official involvement was minimal.

“This journal should allow students from other concentrations also to learn more about History and Literature, and I’m sure it’ll make for really good reading,” he said.

Keller hoped that Historia would build an intellectual community interested in the interdisciplinary exercise of combining History, and Literature.

“Since Hist and Lit students take courses in a wide variety of departments and fields, we rarely have the opportunity to meet Hist and Lit students who are in another field.” said Keller. “Historia will hopefully be a place where students can revel in the interdisciplinary style that makes our concentration so unique.”

According to Keller, another of the journal’s goals is to bridge the chasm between “literary” history and the “historical” literary criticism—a gap that the History and Literature Department attempts to narrow through its interdisciplinary approach. “We felt the need for a venue where we could celebrate that distinctive Hist and Lit method, without having to tailor it to fit a purely ‘historical’ or ‘literary’ approach,” she said.

“Historia” will be different from the History department’s journal, “Tempus.”

“We will try and make [Historia] a more interesting, and less formal publication,” said co-editor Sue Meng ’03, who is also a Crimson columnist. Meng also noted that while “Tempus” is exclusively published by the History department, “Historia” would be published by the History and Literature Committee.