University of Virginia Library

New Literary History Provides Medium
To Stimulate 'Rethinking Of Basic Issues'

By ANN BROWN

A University publication New Literary
History is altering the entire approach of
international scholars to literary history.

Although many students on the
Grounds have undoubtedly never heard
of it, the journal is attracting increasing
attention in literary circles.

The publication was established in 1969
as part of the University's
sesquicentennial celebration.

According to an Information Services
release, the magazine was "designed, as a
forum for scholars rethinking such basic
issues as the nature of literature and
history the philosophy of language and
the place of literature in the lives of
men."

Journal Editor

Ralph Cohen, editor of the journal and
professor of English at the University, has
remarked, "New Literary History may be
a misnomer, for it seems to imply that we
deal with a kind of old-fashioned subject

which we pretentiously say we're going to
be new about."

"That's not it at all," he continued,
"literary history may once have referred
to the social backgrounds of literature,
but it means that literature is an
expression of what writers thought and
felt and how we, as modern readers,
respond to the past."

Many Contributors

According to Mr. Cohen, contributions
have come from "the major thinkers in
this country and Europe. People who
could command a great deal fro an article
give it to us because they like what we're
doing."

Among part contributors are John
Cage, Marshall McLuhan, Claude
Levi-Strauss, Tene Welleck and Max
Black. Mr. Cohen added, "We are the first
American journal to have an article
written for it by a member of the
Institute of World Literature in Moscow."

There is a space of two years between
the time a topic is selected by Mr. Cohen
and the appearance in the magazine of a
discussion of the subject.

During the intervening period, scholars
from around the world in various fields
from literature to science will examine
the topic and read each other's work. The
entire issue will be criticized by someone
outside the field.

An advisory board composed of 18
scholars from universities in Europe and
America gathers articles from experts in
their own countries and suggests new
subjects for examination.

"Scholars must learn to deal with the
present satisfactorily and one way to do
that is by relating to the past," Mr. Cohen

'Understand Change'

When we understand the differences
between how they respond today and the
reasons for the differences," "he
concluded, "then we will begin to
understand the nature of change—which is
the whole point of our studies and of
New Literary History."