New Directions in Eighteenth-Century Periodical Studies

Abstract

The State of the Field in periodical studies is perhaps best characterized as ‘ripening’. This essay examines foundational and recent studies of 18th‐century periodicals taken as their own genre; when used as supporting texts in cultural studies inquiries; and when studied because of their relationship to canonical writers, such as Addison, Steele, Johnson, Haywood, and Dunton. It suggests that due to the era of the digital humanities, the time is excellent for a renewed exploration of scholarship devoted to and using periodicals, and for expanding their presence in the classroom.

Women and the book in Britain's long eighteenth century

“…Shevelow's conclusion is a mixed one: although periodicals expanded access to print culture for women, as readers, authors and editors, it did not liberate them, as the periodicals tended to engage in a restrictive discourse of femininity. More than 20 years later, Manushag N. Powell's (2011) Literature Compass essay, “New Directions in Eighteenth‐Century Periodical Studies,” describes the growing interest in female‐oriented and female‐run periodicals, from John Dunton's The Ladies ' Mercury , first published in February 1693, and mid‐century periodicals such as Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator (1744–1746), Frances Brooke's The Old Maid (1755–1756), and Charlotte Lennox's The Lady ' s Museum (1760–1761), to The Lady ' s Magazine (Batchelor, 2020; 1770–1818) at the end of the period. Mary Waters's (2004) British Women Writers and the Profession of Literary Criticism, 1789–1832 considers women who wrote literary reviews (as well as essays, prefaces and other forms of criticism) during the Romantic period, and features extended examinations of Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Letitia Barbauld, describing the contributions made by female literary critics.…”