Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines

The three volumes of A Critical and Cultural History will survey the magazines' editorial positions, their diverse contents, the role of individual contributors, their design, sponsorship, readerships and position in a changing market economy. They will therefore bring new material evidence to understandings of an emerging modernist aesthetic and its place in relations between minority and mass culture in the contemporary phase of modernisation. The three volumes will be published by Oxford University Press.

Each volume of 300,000 words will be structured in terms of a General Introduction and a series of chapters, prefaced by part introductions. Each section will endeavour to address the following common themes:

  • The Role of Magazines in the Construction of Modernism
  • The Relation of Magazines to Literary and Artistic Movements
  • The Changing Context of Publishing and Patronage
  • The Role of Editors and Readers
  • The Visual Culture of Modernist Magazines
  • The Magazines in Ideology, Politics and History

The Introduction will additionally take up the relation of magazines to the periodical press, the role of bookshops and of small, independent presses.

Volume One is planned for publication in 2009. Preparation of volumes 2 and 3 will follow in phases from 2009 to 2010.