Hortense Naas et le Journal ‘L’Utopie - Revue littéraire et engagée’
Fiona McNally
Hortense Naas is a student living in Paris who has just completed a master’s in mediaeval literature at La Sorbonne. This past year, she also co-founded and launched a new bi-annual journal called L’Utopie - Revue littéraire et engagée.
Image Credit: Hortense Naas
Hortense Naas, Co-founder du journal L’Utopie
Fiona McNally
So this year has been interesting for everyone, how have you adapted to the situation and how has it affected your work and plans?
Hortense Naas
So, unfortunately, we all had to make compromises this year. I was very lucky because I was able to get through the different lockdowns in a rather comfortable situation. I managed to get access to all the documents I needed to continue my master's research, and I live in a flat which isn’t too small, so I guess we can call this a good condition. As for the other plans, almost everything had to be cancelled. Unfortunately, cinemas, bars, and restaurants are still closed at the moment so it will not have been a year of leisure!
I'm thinking a lot of my fellow students for whom the situation is clearly alarming. Many students have lost their jobs and have found themselves in a truly precarious situation. And, unfortunately, the government is struggling to find solutions, so it's not very joyful.
As a young graduate, I'm looking for work and, despite having had quite a lot of experience in publishing, I have noticed that companies are no longer recruiting, or at least not as much. So this year, which I thought would be an opportunity to enrich my professional experience, has turned out to be more of an opportunity to deal with unexpected problems. But I consider myself lucky because I managed to make the most of this free time by working twice as hard on the first issue of L’Utopie. So I guess we can say good things can come from bad.
FM
I think that's exactly it, isn't it? It's been about adapting to the situation. And, like you say, although some of us may have missed out on some professional experience we were hoping for, having to adapt to this new way of living has also developed new skills. And something brilliant which has come out of your year is your journal L’Utopie!
So can I ask a bit more about your English master’s at La Sorbonne? What led you to choose to do a master’s and why did you choose to specialise in mediaeval literature?
HN
I was in the literary preparatory class for three years after my Baccalauréat. I didn't really know what profession I wanted to go into, so I decided to prepare for the competitive examination for L’École Normale Supérieure, and I missed it twice - but I learnt a lot, especially about myself. Let's just say that the preparatory class allowed me to find out what I really like, and that's priceless I think.
So at the end of those three years, I realised that I wanted to study English and, more specifically mediaeval literature. I've always been fascinated by Arthurian Legend and while reading Thomas Malory's Le Morte d’Arthur over the summer holidays, I realised that the forest played a crucial role in the knights’ adventures. This question had not been extensively addressed by scholars so I took the plunge, and I studied forests in Arthurian literature in the first year of my master's degree and, following this first thesis, I decided to take an interest in hermits in my second year, and more precisely, in the way hermit sanctity was built in the Middle Ages and in mediaeval literature. So it’s an absolutely fascinating subject and I would very much like to continue my research in a PhD thesis, and to expand my corpus of text, and perhaps my chronological boundaries, because my areas of specialisation are mainly the 14th and the 15th centuries. So I’d like to be able to expand this and focus on the Middle Ages more broadly.
Image Credit: Hortense Naas
The First Edition of L’Utopie ‘Forêts’ was released on 31st January 2021
FM
That's super interesting! This is a question that we're going to talk about a little bit later but I'm just wondering if the theme of forests in the first edition of L’Utopie had anything to do with your work?
HN
Yes I had the idea that the forest was both a very ancient subject, and a contemporary one given the current worrying situation concerning forests. So I liked the idea of putting my mediaeval knowledge of the forest to the purpose of the current situation and combining the two!
FM
It's so interesting that the idea sprang out from mediaeval literature and literary tropes, and then became a much more real, physical issue linked to the present.
This past year you launched an online journal called L’Utopie, which is incredible. Tell me a bit more about how this idea came about and how you went about setting it up.
HN
So the idea of creating the journal was based on an observation. About two years ago, my friend Capucine (who is the co-founder of the journal) and I used to meet to discuss literature and to write together for a few hours during the week - it was great motivation for both of us. And, in the course of our conversations, we agreed to embark on this ambitious project to show that, in these difficult times, when issues of global warming and inequalities assail us and require answers, literature can help us to think about these problems. It was important for us to unite, to find possible solutions, and we wanted to create a catalyst for ideas and initiatives which would allow us to re-think the world today. And because the world in which we live has changed, the problems are no longer the same, and we must adapt and find the right initiatives. So the aim of the journal is therefore above all reconciliation; a reconciliation between science and literature, between passivity and action, between literature and commitment, in order to think in today’s world.
FM
Wow, that's amazing! And so, in more practical terms, how did you put your team together? How did you get more people involved?
HN
So at the moment, we are a very small team. Capucine and I organise the whole team and we mentioned the project to our friends, and they were immediately very enthusiastic. So they helped us and we became a team of ten people. There are some people who only want to read the text and help us select the contributions, and there are some who want to get involved in the administrative-side. So it's great to see that our friends have put their individual knowledge and what they do to help us bring this project to life!
FM
Absolutely, you've got a team of various people with various different skills which is great and then you call out for others to send in their work, and then go through and select it, which is really cool.
Image Credit: Hortense Naas
Capucine Zgraja, Co-founder du journal L’Utopie
So what is the significance behind the name of the journal? I'm guessing it's linked to Thomas More who coined the term ‘Utopia’?
HN
So the term ‘utopie’ or ‘utopia’ is very overused and we wanted to return to its etymology, which is ancient Greek. The trouble is that ‘utopie’ comes from ‘topos’, meaning ‘place’, and a prefix was added, but we're actually not sure whether it's the prefix ‘eu’, meaning ‘good’ and suggesting that ‘utopie’ is the place where everything is great, or whether the prefix is ‘ou’ which is a privative prefix, meaning a place which doesn’t exist.
So Capucine and I were very interested in this double etymology and we decided that we wanted our journal to be a place where everything will be great and where anyone could have a good time while documenting and learning about current events or questions.
FM
It seems to fit your journal really well and, like you say, you haven't decided on one meaning so it’s open to both which leaves it up to interpretation.
The journal really has something for everyone, I feel like it's something that anyone could pick up and really enjoy and learn from. It also welcomes all writers, and it focuses on literary and scientific articles in general. So, if people wanted to get involved, what kind of commissions would you be looking for? What are you looking to add to this journal?
HN
So it is above all originality that we prefer and that we are looking for. What I think is great about this first issue is that we have managed to create coherence between texts and illustrations which are very diverse in their forms, styles, registers, and even opinions. And we'd like this diversity to be the strength of our issues. We believe that everyone's contribution is welcome, as long as it respects our individual editorial standards. I believe that it is thanks to this diversity of opinions and proposals that we will be able to find solutions to our questions, and this is also why we want to ensure that, in each issue, there is an interview with people who are directly confronted with the problems we are talking about. If reading our journal can encourage people to get involved with associations that support causes that are dear to them, I think we will have achieved our goal.
FM
I could definitely see that a lot of work went into the first issue, and it's also very comprehensive and dense in terms of how much material there is! You can tell that it's a big project, but it's very much a side project for everyone involved.
So is your team mostly comprised of students and young adults, or is there a mix?
HN
The team is very diverse. We are mainly young adults or students but we are also open to working with anyone and everyone. For instance, our designer is about 40 years old and he was very enthusiastic about the project and he wanted to be part of it. And that's great, because all generations have different points of view on subjects, and it's great to see that the gap between generations is sometimes not as wide as you might think. I'm very happy that our journal appeals to everyone. So even if our team is still young, I hope we will be able to work with some other people who are perhaps a little older than us and get them involved in the project!
FM
It’s inevitably going to be a team and a project which only hopefully grows over time. I hope that people from Cambridge get in touch if they read this interview and send you some pitches!
Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash
As we were discussing earlier, the journal which was published at the end of January focused on the theme of forests. So can you tell me a bit more about how you chose the theme, and also what potential future themes you might look at?
HN
As I said, I have a very special love for forests, which is also why I chose to work on the subject for my master's degree. When we were looking for the theme for the first issue, we quickly came to the conclusion that the forest was exactly the kind of theme we wanted to work on. Scientific reports are rather pessimistic about the future of forests; they are threatened by monoculture, intensive agriculture, and whole areas are being cut down for purely commercial reasons, endangering complex ecosystems, and, of course, humans will not be spared. Wild animals are losing their homes and are reduced to going elsewhere, carrying with them unknown viruses against which we are not immune.
So the tables have turned in a way; we are victims of our own policy of destruction, which we don't even agree with. So it is with these issues in mind that we decided to propose a call for papers on this theme and the participants were very inspired, resulting in this issue which we are very proud of.
We’ll launch a new call for papers at the end of February, and we've asked people following us on social media to propose themes, so we'll see what inspires us the most and every contribution is welcome! So I guess it will be a surprise, but a good one!
FM
And as you were saying earlier, you welcome all forms in the journal. You have illustrations and art, and then the more essay-based articles, and you’re open to poetry too?
HN
I like to think that our authors are able to choose the form that best represents their ideas. And the fact that they are very free to send us poetry, prose, or even paintings is something which I think is a strength of our journal, and I'd like to keep it that way.
FM
It definitely gives it a more modern twist when you think about it because it has an academic side, which is very professional with the essays, but the combination with more artistic forms keeps things diverse. Diversity seems to really be at the heart of this project, which is great, there's something for everyone!
So focusing on your piece of writing in particular, you wrote an article called ‘Le Billet d’humeur’ which was very interesting, what other kinds of articles are you thinking of writing in the future?
HN
So ‘Le Billet d’humeur’ will be a recurring column and I'm delighted to have this because it will allow me to express myself on the subject I want, related to the theme of the issue of course. But I will be completely free in terms of tone. So even if I was very enthusiastic in this first issue, I will not refrain from yelling out about things that I can't stand in the following issues, and I hope I will be as sufficiently inspired by the next themes and surprise myself by maybe proposing a text among the writing too. So we'll see, it will depend on the theme, on my inspiration, on my time too, but it's great to see that this project is really allowing me to be very free in terms of tone and form.
FM
That’s amazing! And are any other writers going to have a regular piece or column in each issue?
HN
So the co-founder, Capucine, and I will always do the editorials and perhaps sometimes we'll switch; she’ll write ‘Le Billet d’humeur’ and I’ll write the Editorial. We'd love to keep these two columns for ourselves. Since we’re directing the project, it will be easier for us to write these two chronicles which have to cover all the themes and all the pitches we receive. It’s a difficult exercise to try to introduce all the texts and all the creations we’ve included, but because we have a panoramic view across the entire project, it’s much easier for us to do it. We would also very much like to have another recurring column, perhaps about reading advice. It would be great to have someone to introduce the books which they liked at the time the issue was written, or write on a book that is related to the issue in some way. So we'll see if anyone is interested in this idea, but it would be great to be able to give some advice to our readers!
FM
It would definitely help readers navigate the journal and really understand the cohesion between all the work.
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
So you’ve already got plans for the future and, with regards to the journal, are there any other big goals for where you want it to end up?
HN
So we would very much like to organise debates, if the current situation eventually allows for it. This is something we are very keen on because we think it will bring out interesting ideas and questions. These debates would deal with issues related to the theme of the journal, and it would be a way of extending the reflection developed in the issue.
And, of course, we would also like our readership to grow further, and we hope that our online pool will allow us not only to organise cultural events in optimal conditions, but also to launch a paper version of the journal. But I think this will only be possible in a few years time.
We hope that the next call for contributions will be as inspiring as the first one and that we will receive lots of pitches! That’s what’s great because, of course, we can't include every contribution in our issues, but the more we receive, the more interesting the selection will be. And we have an interesting diversity thanks to these numerous contributions, so I hope the following themes will inspire our future writers!
FM
I'm sure it will, like you say, the theme of forests was already such a big success, despite it only being your first issue, so it can only grow from there, which is fantastic!
I was just wondering if you’ve ever thought of translating the journal into English, or maybe just part of it, just to widen that readership like you were talking about? Or is it very much going to stay in French and loyal to its original writers?
HN
It would be great to translate it! We'll see but I would love to be able to broaden the call for papers for contributions in foreign languages, perhaps. The trouble is that, unfortunately, I don’t speak many languages, so it would be difficult for my editorial work. But I guess it would be very interesting, because I'm sure that each language would allow you to create a different kind of work. I guess that if I were writing in English, I wouldn't write the same thing that I would write in French. So it would be very interesting to perhaps have an English chronicle which could be recurring. That's another point which we will think about this year to try to add diversity to the issues.
FM
Well thank you so much for speaking to me this morning. I really enjoyed reading the journal and I think that, since the Cambridge Language Collective has quite a broad readership in terms of foreign readers too, hopefully there will be lots of people either studying French or who are French who pick L’Utopie up and take an interest, and maybe even choose to contribute!
HN
Thank you very much for taking such an interest in our journal, it's very flattering for us to hear that people abroad are interested in reading it too!
Website: https://revue-utopie.fr/la-revue
Read the first issue of the journal here
To get involved contact: contact@revue-utopie.fr
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