ABSTRACT
For a historian to appeal to literary sources in a credible way – at least from the point of view of literary critics – she needs to be aware of three things: first, how the period categorized different sorts of writing as being literature; second, how literary genres frame the thinking about life done in these texts; and third, how, today, she can find literary primary sources, how she can use today’s commentary on them, and the elephant traps that exist in selecting and using these sources.
