Critics Abroad

Abstract

The Paris Review emerged out of an aesthetic of modernist literary magazines of the early twentieth century associated with the city of the Paris. Ever conscious of the lingering effects of Dadaism and Surrealism, it distinguished itself from the dominant tradition of literary magazines in 1953 by not publishing manifestos or other aesthetic treatises that would link it to any particular group or ideology. Instead, the focus of the Review would be fiction, poetry and, above all, its interview series — the latter being an open forum in which aging modernists were able to look back upon their work and provide insight on the writing process. This chapter examines the transatlantic status of The Paris Review, and makes the case for the significance of its interview series in modernist studies. It also considers the processes by which the Review inscribes itself within an overall context of modernism.