Introduction

The introduction to this issue’s special theme first focuses on the challenges involved in studying the relations between history and fiction across several millennia, multiple languages and many different cultures. It then turns to an explication of, and draws connections among, the three principal essays, each of which focuses on historical-literary interactions during periods or in geographic regions that are less commonly studied in Europe and North America. In order properly to contextualize and position our topic on history and historical fiction, our theme necessarily transgresses the boundaries of the history of humanities disciplines and thus includes one essay that deals with literary fiction.