Little Magazine
Note: Dear students, this note is only for conceptual, to get scoring marks read main books, by P.B.(your nearest & dearest)
Define Little magazine and discuss its contribution to the development
of English Literature.
Ans:-
Outside of size little magazines have been traditionally defined
as, ‘Non-Commercial, experimental and dedicate,
defying mainstream taste and conventions.’ Critics further define little
magazines as either upholding higher artistic and intellectual standers than
their commercial counter parts. Little magazine also challenged conventional
political wisdom and projects social evils by projecting mass opinion. However
magazines that are classified as ‘little’ are often neither aesthetic
experimental nor had relationship with mass people.
In the beginning of 20th century, many little
magazines emerged as a reaction to the popular commercial magazines and popular
traditions of literary projection in those magazines. Among them, ‘The Mask’ and *‘The Antidote’. The ‘Antidote’
rented irregularly from 1912-1915
and it was back by the British author and poet Lord Alfred Douglas. This magazine is notable for having published
many of England’s Great War poets. It only populated for three years, because
it could not establish any relationships with the mass people.
Little magazines are
traditionally separated from mass magazine along the dividing line between the
fiction and pure literature. Little magazine first started to appear in the
early part of 19th century
mirroring an overall rise in the number of books, popular magazines and
scholarly journals. Among the literary magazines that appeared in the early
part of 20th century is ‘Poetry Magazine’ founded in 1912. This
magazine published T.S. Eliot’s very famous ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock’ for the first time. The other important littlie magazines which left
an impression in the contemporary society include ‘The Time Literary Supplement’(1902), ‘South West Review’(1915), ‘Virginia
Quarterly Review’ (1925) and ‘New Letters’ (1935). The middle of 20th
century saw a boon in the number of little magazine with corresponded with
the rise of small press. Among the important journals which started their
literary career were- ‘Nimbus: a
magazine of literature’, ‘The Arts and New ideas’(1951), ‘The Paris Review’, ‘X-Magazine’,
‘Poetry North Waste’ and ‘Columbia’.
It was through what have since become known as ‘little
magazine’ through which modernist’s revolution in poetry was announced and
carried forward. From this success of this revolution, we can judge the poetic achievement
of the period. An educated audience impatient with traditional convention was
ready for change. They demanded an alternative way of the composition of
poetry. Though the readers were relatively small but they were advance in their
opinions. The appearance of T.S Eliot’s ‘The
Waste Land’ first issued in the Quarterly
Magazine, ‘The Criterion’. Many other great English poets like W.B Yeats,
Graham Greenland Auden witness their first printed words on the pages of little
magazines.
So, we can conclude that technically ‘a little magazine’
refers to any of the periodical publications devoted to serious literary writings
and have been received by some selected readers. One of the principles behind
these publication’s of little magazines involved the objective of providing a
platform to the writers and artists who are not otherwise granted the opportunity
to have their compositions printed in the mainstream magazines and journals.
Little magazines have provided great scope for
experimentation and launched a new style of writings in 20th century
literature. These young writers always tried to find an alternative way of
expression. The scholarly and intellectual bent of these little magazine’s writers
created an interesting depicture from the conventional style of literary
practice. The little magazine culture was most active in the early decades of
20th century and still continues but unfortunately the influenced is
considerably muted/silent.
God Bless You all