Literary magazines in Austria 1970-2000. A hanbook

This project aims at making a contribution to the research conducted on literary magazines in Austria (including South Tyrol) between 1970 and 2000 as for this period there are almost no works of reference. This fact turns out to be even more remarkable since the magazine scene in Austria has almost completely changed in the past thirty years. The absolute number of literary magazines published in these years has been more or less the same; there are about 70 to 100 titles published every year. As to their first date of publication, however, only a meagre 3-5% of them can be dated back to the seventies. It is the purpose of the project to document as completely as possible all the periodicals published during these years, as well as to give an accurate description of the tendency and performance of each individual magazine in the form of an encyclopaedia. These magazines may not reach large audiences any longer. Nevertheless, even today, the literary and cultural journals of a country - side by side with the arts sections of newspapers and weekly magazines, with public television and radio programmes, and with the so-called New Media -, more or less directly reflect contemporary understanding of culture and literature. Going beyond superficial eulogies and literary studies out of touch with reality, they play an important role on the literary and cultural scene. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler once pointedly remarked that "the history of post-war Austrian Literature cannot be written unless one starts with the magazines." We entirely agree on this. The results of our research project shall be published in two different formats: as a traditional handbook, subdivided into a documentary and a lexicographical section. In view of the principal openness of the medium for quantitative additions beyond the confines of our project it will also be realized as an internet publication. This will enable us to add digital reproductions of the magazine covers and other items such as criticisms by way of using the hypertext functions of an internet publication. Research will be conducted at the "Innsbrucker Zeitungsarchiv" / IZA, a documentation and research institution that forms an integrative part of the Institut für deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Literaturkritik at the University of Innsbruck. The IZA is presently a `Marie Curie Training Site` of the European Union for multi-media literary criticism and the conveying of literature to a wider audience.

This project aims at making a contribution to the research conducted on literary magazines in Austria (including South Tyrol) between 1970 and 2000 as for this period there are almost no works of reference. This fact turns out to be even more remarkable since the magazine scene in Austria has almost completely changed in the past thirty years. The absolute number of literary magazines published in these years has been more or less the same; there are about 70 to 100 titles published every year. As to their first date of publication, however, only a meagre 3-5% of them can be dated back to the seventies. It is the purpose of the project to document as completely as possible all the periodicals published during these years, as well as to give an accurate description of the tendency and performance of each individual magazine in the form of an encyclopaedia. These magazines may not reach large audiences any longer. Nevertheless, even today, the literary and cultural journals of a country - side by side with the arts sections of newspapers and weekly magazines, with public television and radio programmes, and with the so-called New Media -, more or less directly reflect contemporary understanding of culture and literature. Going beyond superficial eulogies and literary studies out of touch with reality, they play an important role on the literary and cultural scene. Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler once pointedly remarked that "the history of post-war Austrian Literature cannot be written unless one starts with the magazines." We entirely agree on this. The results of our research project shall be published in two different formats: as a traditional handbook, subdivided into a documentary and a lexicographical section. In view of the principal openness of the medium for quantitative additions beyond the confines of our project it will also be realized as an internet publication. This will enable us to add digital reproductions of the magazine covers and other items such as criticisms by way of using the hypertext functions of an internet publication. Research will be conducted at the "Innsbrucker Zeitungsarchiv" / IZA, a documentation and research institution that forms an integrative part of the Institut für deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Literaturkritik at the University of Innsbruck. The IZA is presently a `Marie Curie Training Site` of the European Union for multi-media literary criticism and the conveying of literature to a wider audience.