Introduction: The Magazine and World Literature

The essays in this issue ask, what kind of experience of world literature do periodicals create? Does the form of the periodical, its reliance on short textual genres and on fragmentary, occasional, token offerings produce a different experience of world literature from more systematic forms, like the book series, the anthology, or the syllabus? The first, obvious, answer is that magazines produce a more contingent canon. Even when the intent is of presenting the canonical greats of world literature, this is not the only world literature magazines offer. In fact, they often combine different visions of world literature, sometimes even within the same issue.