‘In fiction as in fact’: 40 years of literary studies in The London Journal

Abstract

For four decades The London Journal has been at the heart of scholarly debate on the history and the culture of Britain's capital city, from the middle ages to the present. Despite the perception in some quarters that this is a journal primarily of relevance to historians, from the outset The London Journal has set out to cover ‘the fine and performing arts, the natural environment and … commentaries on metropolitan life in fiction as in fact’. Scholarly and theoretical trends within literary studies have evolved considerably over the last 40 years, and these developments can be traced in the ways in which contributors to The London Journal have variously engaged with literature. In exploring such engagements, this survey article discusses some notable articles published in the journal over this time-period, and concludes by evaluating the degree to which it has, as its founding principles stated it should, offered a truly ‘multi-disciplinary’ approach to London studies.