Skip navigation

Introduction

Introduction

Smith, Adam James, Jones, Emrys D. and Stenke, Katarina ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4006-3826 (2026) Introduction. In: Jones, Emrys D., Smith, Adam James and Stenke, Katarina ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4006-3826, (eds.) Impolite Periodicals. Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg, PA, pp. 3-28. (In Press)

[thumbnail of Accepted Edited Volume] PDF (Accepted Edited Volume)
44776_STENKE_Impolite_Periodicals_(EDITED BOOK)_2026.pdf - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (13MB) | Request a copy
[thumbnail of Author's Accepted Chapter (AAM)] PDF (Author's Accepted Chapter (AAM))
44776 STENKE_Introduction_Impolite_Periodicals_(AAM)_2026.pdf - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (359kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Studies of the eighteenth-century periodical have long tended to understand the form according to the period’s own insistence on adhering to and promoting politeness. In contrast, this collection reads for impoliteness, revealing a more nuanced, granular, and dynamic view of eighteenth-century periodicals such as Addison and Steele’s popular The Spectator, and a fuller sense of their value within the societies that produced and consumed them. By inverting the traditional focus, this volume promotes a new history of the periodical characterized not as highbrow gatekeeper of literary taste, but as incongruent, idiosyncratic, and impolite. Impolite Periodicals thus brings together a range of perspectives on eighteenth-century periodical publication, not simply to argue that periodicals could be impolite, but to explore how readings of their potential impoliteness might affect our understanding of their literary and social significance. This collection relishes and lingers on signs of rudeness, inconsistency, impurity, and failure.

Item Type: Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords: impoliteness; periodicals; eighteenth-century
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GT Manners and customs
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Last Modified: 22 Aug 2025 15:49
URI: https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/44776

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics