Marxism\u27s ‘Communicative Crisis’? Mapping Debates over Leninist Print-Media Practices in the 20th Century

Despite the scholarly neglect of Marxism’s ‘communicative crisis’, it was a topic of concern that was addressed, debated and negotiated over by party leaders, intellectuals and activists on a continuous basis throughout the 20th century. These concerns revolved around three areas: first, the primary means of print communication, the party paper; second, the specialization of production, particularly around the role of writers and journalists; and third, the search for a popular rhetoric and writing style, which would appeal to the general public. This paper maps out the ‘communicative crisis’ of Marxism in the 20th century through an examination of key intersections of disputes over the correct approach to its practices of print communication, as a starting point for an historical analysis of the failures and successes of Marxist political praxis

Introduction

This chapter outlines the scope of the book, discusses Rose Macaulay's life and writing, and summarises the other chapters in the book, making connections to their coherence as a unified argument that Macaulay was a writer of modernity in British literary culture of the twentieth century

Symons and Print Culture: Journalist, Critic, Book Maker

My intent here is to explore the range and ingenuity of Arthur Symons’s participation in print culture, and to probe how he managed his bread and butter work as a journalist, critic, and book maker. My focus is his article ‘The Painting of the Nineteenth Century’, in its differing functions and forms over a four-year period (1903-1906), as a periodical book review and a chapter on painting that appeared in Studies in Seven Arts, a book comprised of articles from the press. What initially drew me to this article was its evidence of Symons’s sustained support for Simeon Solomon, a queer British artist from a London-based family of Jewish painters, in the decade that followed the Wilde trials, and among the inhibitions they fostered. Nearly a generation younger than Solomon, Symons (1865-1945) was born just as Solomon (1840-1905) began his career. Solomon appears in both the 1903 and 1906 versions of Symons’s review, and in between a newspaper review of an exhibition of Solomon’s work in 1905/1906. Symons enters late into Solomon’s story in these pieces, towards the end of the artist’s life

Front-Page Jews: Doris Wittner\u27s (1880-1937) Berlin Feuilletons

In ‘Die jüdische Frau und das jüdische Buch’ (The Jewish woman and the Jewish book), an article published 18 March 1931 on the front page of the Jüdisch-liberale Zeitung, Doris Wittner included the following lines that concisely sum up her pioneering ideological and political agendas: ‘Aber bis der endgültige Rechtspruch über des Weibes Ruf und Berufung erfolgt, werden wir jedem Frauengeist, der “strebend sich bemüht”, Anerkennung und Ehrerbietung zollen. […] Insbesondere unsere Glaubensgenossinnen, die gewohnt sind, Menschenlose nur nach Jahrtausenden zu messen.’ With such feuilleton articles, Wittner worked to validate women’s contributions to professional spheres, particularly literature and journalism; to offer both Jewish women and men due credit for their achievements in light of growing antisemitism; and to advocate for the special talents of Jews due to their historical and cultural connections. That this article appeared on the front page of this liberal Berlin Jewish newspaper is no less telling, as Wittner was a regular contributor whose pieces often earned prominent display. Indeed, part of what makes Wittner a journalist of note is the fact that her work appeared with surprising frequency on front pages or in other prominent positions in both general and Jewish publications. [excerpt

Chicago Newspaper Theater Critics of the Early 20th Century

In the early years of the twentieth century, when live theater dominated the entertainment world and print media led public discourse, each without competition from electronic forms, the daily newspaper theater critic mediated ideas and values quite differently than today’s critics, whose main function has been reduced to that of a consumer guide. This article examines the corps of theater critics who served ten Chicago newspapers about 100 years ago. At a time when news editors were reluctant to cover new ideas and social movements, such as the push for women’s suffrage, theater critics were encountering radical new social ideas from European playwrights. Whether they approved or disapproved—and they did both, vehemently—their open debate with each other provided a level of public conversation of incalculable value in their own time, and largely missing today

OUTRAGEOUS VIOLATIONS: ENABLING STUDENTS TO INTERPRET NINETEENTH CENTURY NEWSPAPER REPORTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE

This article is divided into two parts: the first highlights some of the difficulties and limitations for students and tutors who wish to explore the historiography of rape and sexual assault. In particular it addresses the problematic issue of accessing and interpreting the official records of such proceedings in the criminal courts. As an alternative it is suggested that nineteenth century newspaper reports written by professional lawyer-reporters can provide an effective substitute and can be justified as a primary research source. The second part offers a series of four case studies of sexual assaults as reported in The Times newspaper which students can easily access through the digital archive and analyse. These are presented with observations on how students might be directed to read and interpret the reports together with suggested learning points to enable them to understand how the criminal law and legal process operated in practice, and the real life implications and consequences for the parties involved

Davis, Virginia Wood (MSS 375)

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 375. Correspondence, photographs, diaries, and personal and professional writing of Virginia Wood Davis, a Smiths Grove, Kentucky native and a reporter and editor, 1943-1985, for newspapers in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and McCreary County, Kentucky. Includes genealogical data as well as corresopndence and miscellaneous papers of her family, especially her mother, Virginia Wood (Cox) Davis

Irish Women Freelance Writers and the Popular Press: An Army Beyond Literary Circles

This article considers the publishing careers of a small number of Irish women who worked as freelance journalists and authors in order to explore both their experiences as professional writers and the industry in which they worked. They are an illustrative sample of freelance writers of their era and their careers shed light on this vast, overlooked aspect of media history, especially that of the increasing numbers of women who sought to earn money from their writing in this period. Beginning to understand these women writers is a step towards better understanding the publishing industry commercial press. This article argues there was an army of periodical writers drawn from far beyond literary circles, who wrote while also working as typists or teachers, and who remained disconnected from other writers even as they regularly published stories and articles over several decades

FRONTLINE: Gentle sounds, distant roar: a watershed year for journalism as research

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) 2020 decision on disciplinary categories has profound implications for journalism as a research discipline.  Journalism Practice and Professional Writing retain their six-digit Fields of Research (FoR) code within the Creative Arts and Writing Division, a new six-digit FoR of Journalism Studies has been created in the Division of Language, Communication and Culture, and three new FoR codes of Literature, Journalism and Professional Writing have been created for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pacific Peoples within the new Indigenous Studies Division.  This categorisation both confirms Journalism as a sovereign and independent discipline distinct from Communication and Media Studies, which has been in bitter contention for more than two decades.  The ANZSRC confirmed its 2008 policy that the sole and definitive criterion for categorisation was methodology.  This article explores the welcome ramifications of this decision for Journalism within Australasian university-based journalism and charts some of the issues ahead for journalism academics as they embark on the long overdue and fraught path to disciplinary self-recognition as an equal among the humanities and social sciences. &nbsp