Looking Back

This essay considers the fortunes of “theory” in Victorian Periodicals Review since the first theory issue published in 1989. It looks at the prevailing types of articles in the journal—archival approaches, author-based studies, and close readings—in the 1980s when theory was prominent in academic discourse and periodical scholars were still dealing with the riches that the Wellesley and Waterloo indexes offered. It also considers our attempts in the special issue to prompt change by offering examples of theoretical ways to approach the periodical press. Since 1989, theory has been embedded in many of the critical approaches found in the journal. The scholarly fissure, insofar as there is one, is often between print and digitally derived methodologies, that is, between discursive criticism and the explication of the results of distant readings through graphic tables and visualisations.