Friday, March 4, 2011

Charles Chesnutt

For this post, I want you to think about the original publication context of "The Wife of His Youth." The short story appeared in the December 1989 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.

http://books.google.com/books?id=laMRAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA23&dq=atlantic+monthly+1898+december&hl=en&ei=Lj9xTYWxAYOCsQPT_LHPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

(Paste the above into your browser. From the page that loads, you'll have to scroll up.)

Visit the GoogleBook version of the issue and scan through it. What do you learn about the Atlantic reader's taste? What other kind of fiction interested this "reader"? What kinds of political stories? For what kinds of products are there advertisements?

12 comments:

  1. The Atlantic Monthly seems to cater its stories at subject matter towards high class intellectuals. Some of this subject matter includes matters dealing with international relations, national social issues, as well as a variety of fictional stories. Among these fictional stories include a few love stories (“The Wife of His Youth,” “The Battle of the Strong”). There are also some autobiographies, namely “The Autobiography of a Revolutionist,” by Peter Kropotkin, a Russian social revolutionist and geologist as well as a religious autobiography, “A Soul’s Pilgrimage: Extracts from an Autobiography,” written by C.F.B. Miel, a Catholic Priest. The political stories mainly concern themselves with international and domestic affairs that are of pressing concern to the nation as a whole. There is also an article on government fiscal policy and the question of whether or not it can hold up under times of great strain, such as wartime (“War and Money: Some Lessons from 1862). At the end of the journal, there are many advertisements for luxurious vacations and cruises. There are also advertisements for Weber Pianos, Prudential Insurance Co., Bausch and Lomb Opera Glasses, Charles Dickens’ Complete Works, violins, silverware, gold jewelry, restaurants, and other high class, expensive items reflective of a well to do, high class reader.

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  2. The Atlantic Monthly seemed to cater towards the educated, wealthy, liberal, Christian white audience of the day.
    The cultural and literary commentary in the magazine included poetry, fiction, and current events.

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  3. The intended audience is definitely a literate one. There are historical pieces, from the founding fathers to the Spanish-American War. They try to sell books. It appeared that the readers were interested in encyclopedias and the early textbooks. There were current events. The products tend to be for the rich and educated. The stories would probably be meant for the same.

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  4. The Atlantic monthly is undoubtedly intended for educated, luxurious, upper-class white males. It's listings consisted of works from new writers, covers political affairs national and international, supports major or developing careers and lists advertisements such as the ones angelica listed. This magazine seemed like an ideal spot for writers of all kinds and business ads.

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  5. theAtlantic’s audience is comprised mostly of people who enjoy socially relevant fiction like “the wife of his youth,” and love stories, along with sections of political non-fiction. These people are acquainted with current events, as well as people involved in them, and want to discuss these people and events. The politics of this periodical seem to concern English and American relations, as well as internal politics of a developing nation. The advertising in this magazine concerns mainly books, with ads for children’s books, to autobiographies by people like Benjamin Franklin. These books were mostly for entertainment, or education, with some shakesphere thrown in for good measure.

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  6. This publication is clearly for literate, educated readers who have interest in "literature, science, art, and politics". The written portions speak of individuals who attend Oxford, are very wealthy, and are otherwise quite well off. The autobiographies speak of individuals who have revolutionized various intellectual fields such as language and music. The reader of these stories most likely is interested in similar subjects. The advertisements are for novels, shows, and other publications that are similar to this one.

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  7. This publication looks targeted at the reader who is interested in America, the world, the universe, the future, and how the past has shaped the present. In many regards, the content is very similar to what one would expect to read in the intellectual magazines we find today. From a quick glimpse at the table of contents, I saw stories about history, nature, art, poetry, psychology, philosophy, foreign and domestic politics, language, economics, sociology and science. The wide range of subject matter surprises me, but I imagine information access was a little less immediate without the Internet, and it was desirable for the reader to be able to get their fill of all subjects for the month in one binding. I did not see any subscription prices in here, but I bet that this publication was not cheap. At the very least, the reader was literate and had a fair sum of wealth (or was very passionate about this publication). The product ads would suggest this issue was released right around Christmas since they mention how they would make ideal gifts for the holiday.

    Interesting fact:
    There is an ad in this issue for the complete Encyclopedia Brittanica for $25, or $636 in today's money. The 2010 Encyclopedia Brittanica set: $1,100.

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  8. The "Atlantic Monthly" seemed to be very concerned with having something for everyone. There were things in the edition for adults as well as boys and girls. There was a lot of advertisement for many different kinds of books and there was a lot of poetry. This edition also seemed to be very concerned with Christmas and it mentioned special Christmas stories. I noticed that a few "famed" authors were mentioned throughout the journal. It was interesting also that the article seemed so extensive. There were advertisements for text-books. The magazine even had quite a few illustrations.

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  9. The magazine was very diverse in the type of literate people that it tried to reach. The magazine contained a large amount of literature, mainly articles, books and poems, meaning that the "Atlantic Monthly" catered to the taste of an intellectual audience. The magazine spent many pages advertising the "Atlantic Monthly." The last several pages boast about the magazine itself. I also noticed that there was no particular order to the articles. In today's magazines, there is usually some sort of organization.

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  10. The magazine seemed to have a diverse array of products and articles, but they seemed to try and cater to the upper-echelons of society. With mostly heady and symbolic texts, and news concerning culture it isn't the publication that one might sit down to to get a jist of what's happening.

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  11. The Atlantic Monthly seems like a publication catered to the uper echelon of society, those, who like Edna from "The Awakening", had time to contemplate their place in the world. The advertisements, for example, tend to be for other books, mainly about either history or social statuses. In general the works tend to support "moral" behavior, and behaving like an educated individual.

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  12. It seems that a lot of the articles in The Atlantic Monthly are aimed for the upper class of society and the educated community. Many of the articles have to deal with politics, war, and morality.

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