Project

The Voices of Literature: Radio, Periodicals, and Cultural Conflict (1922-1939)

Code
3E025515
Duration
01 October 2015 → 30 September 2021
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Humanities
    • Theory and methodology of philosophy
    • Philosophy
    • Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified
Keywords
cultural conflict
 
Project description

This project is situated at the intersection of periodical studies and literary radio studies. With the

introduction of sound studies into literary studies, radio has become an important focal point in

modernist studies. Modernist authors made use of radiogenic features in their work and engaged

in broadcasting. If radio is no longer the forgotten medium it once was, the relationship between

the radio and the periodical press has not yet been well understood. Literary scholars focus on

either radio or periodicals but rarely study them together. In addition, they privilege fiction over

criticism in literary debates about the radio. In my project, I analyse the interactions between the

radio and the periodical press, and gauge their combined impact on literary culture. I argue that

radio continued a 19th-century educational project associated with the periodical press. Radio, like

periodicals, informed listeners about cultural tendencies and shaped literary taste. I first explore

what new genres and professions emerged under the influence of radio (e.g. the radio periodical

and the broadcasting chronicle). Secondly, I examine how authors and editors made use of the two

media to create a public identity. Finally, I discuss the influence of radio and periodicals on early

20th-century literature: how did the combination of print and broadcasting contribute to the

popularisation of modernist literature?