Magazine History

Abstract

This article reflects on the methodological and theoretical issues raised in the process of conceiving a history of mid-twentieth century periodical publication in Australia (1920–1970). It argues for an ‘institutional history’ of magazines and defines such an approach through a number of overlapping themes and questions: an examination of the cultural significance of the periodical's ‘periodicity’; its shifting location in the print culture between the newspaper and the book; the relation of magazines to the marketplace and to professional journalism; the role of magazines in the formation of a modern intelligentsia; and magazines as belonging to a history of modernity in Australia, a ‘history of writing’ and a history of audiences.