Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690-1820s

Provides new perspectives on women’s print media in the long eighteenth century This innovative volume presents for the first time collective expertise on women’s magazines and periodicals of the long eighteenth century. While this period witnessed the birth of modern periodical culture and its ability to shape aspects of society from the popular to the political, most studies have traditionally obscured the very active role women’s voices and women readers played in shaping the periodicals that in turn shaped Britain. The 30 essays here demonstrate the importance of periodicals to women, the importance of women to periodicals, and, crucially, they correct the destructive misconception that the more canonized periodicals and popular magazines were enemy or discontinuous forms. This collection shows how both periodicals and women drove debates on politics, education, theatre, celebrity, social practice, popular reading and everyday life itself. Divided into 6 thematic parts, the book uses innovative methodologies for historical periodical studies, thereby mapping new directions in eighteenth-century and Romantic studies, women’s writing as well as media and cultural history. While our period witnessed the birth of modern periodical culture, most studies have obscured the active role women’s voices and women readers played in shaping the periodicals that in turn shaped Britain. Key Features Presents the first major study of the key role women played as authors, editors, and readers of periodicals and magazines in the long eighteenth centuryFeatures cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research by senior and early career specialists in the fields of periodical studies, material culture studies, theatre history, and cultural historyIn its exposition of innovative methodologies for historical periodical studies, the book maps new directions in eighteenth-century and Romantic studies, women’s writing, and media and cultural historyMoves British women’s print media to the centre of long eighteenth-century print culture