One novel cannot be written without some form of influence of an outside source or thought. As time goes on, each new work is just a new edition of the past. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms is on its third edition, but each word within this glossary has been collected from more than 300 years as it goes back to the renaissance and even before this time. New Historicism is meant to challenge the idea that history is just “useful ‘background’ to the main business of elucidating the text”( 124 ). The purpose of the history intertwined with the text is to provide a broader spectrum of knowledge. Each definition in The Bedford Glossary has an example from pop culture or past history which can intrigue the reader to want to understand where this example originated. Each person is receiving more knowledge than they know.
New Historicism is also evident in the chapter headings of Zulus. Each chapter heading starts with a new letter, like a glossary, and provides a snapshot of history. To understand what the heading is referring to, the reader must use outside resources to learn from. History and Literature, “neither term is privileged over the other” (123) which is the case for Zulus because without history, this story would not provide a message to the reader, but without the literature, it would be more difficult to connect the reader to the history. By placing history within a society that could be a possible future, it forces the reader to interpret both aspects, history and literature.