For many decades, modernism and little magazines have been perfect bedfellows. Changing perceptions of both modernism and magazine culture have shattered this ideal match, reshuffling the cards and bringing to the fore a more nuanced and complex picture. Modernism, on the one hand, is no longer a monolithic whole, safely protected from all things non-modern or antimodern. Magazines, on the other hand, have stopped being reduced to the prestigious yet small territory of confidential literary avant-garde publications circulating from hand to hand with the ambition of revolutionizing culture, society, and life. Magazine scholarship is now addressing all kinds of magazines: big and small, political and commercial or otherwise made for entertainment (but no longer despised as futile), text-only and lavishly illustrated, formal and context bound.
Magazines and Modern Identities is a brilliant showcase of this enlarged view. Edited by a team that unites the best of both worlds (Tim Satterthwaite...