Time: Periodicals and the Time of the Now

Responding to the question “What is the use of theory?” this article discusses the meaning of periodical time. Situating the rise of the periodical in the time-regulated structures of nineteenth-century capitalism, I use three case studies to consider some theoretical resources available to discuss the “now” or “new” as characteristic of periodical time. I examine three case studies: the Queen, which was dedicated to the “now” of conspicuous consumption; the British Mothers’ Magazine, which deployed multiple time schemes; and the Lancashire Teddy Ashton’s Journal, which invoked a utopian space-time of community. I draw on theoretical work by David Harvey, Julia Kristeva, and Walter Benjamin, among others, to show how theory and historically informed close reading can work together in periodicals research.