Introduction to the Special Issue: Victorian Networks and the Periodical Press

Abstract

Introduction to the Special Issue: Victorian Networks and the Periodical Press Alexis Easley (bio) When selecting the theme for the 2009 RSVP Conference at the University of St. Thomas, we were immediately struck by the self-reflexive meanings of “Victorian networks and the periodical press.” After all, it was during 2009 that one of the most significant collaborative ventures in the field of Victorian media studies—the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism—was first published in print and digital forms. This project, edited by Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, not only networked researchers in the field of media history but uncovered unexpected links between periodicals, writers, publishers, illustrators, and editors. Another important networking initiative that year was the digitization of back issues of VPR, 1979–2003, which were made available for the first time on the JSTOR database. It was also in 2009 that RSVP created a Facebook page, thus staking claim to virtual terrain in the world of social networking. Meanwhile, major digitization efforts, such as those led by Gale, Pro-Quest, and Google Books, were well underway and were the subject of a special panel at the 2009 conference organized by Patrick Leary, “Fishing the Golden Stream: Adventures in Online Research on the Victorian Press.” At the conference, RSVP also awarded the first Gale Dissertation Research Prize, which recognizes excellence in the use of digital resources for scholarship in Victorian studies. More efforts to embrace digital technologies and networking were soon in progress. In 2010, members of RSVP contributed essays to the Illustrated London News Historical Archive, and this year, members are working collaboratively with John Drew’s Dickens Journals Online project in preparation for the Dickens bicentenary in 2012. If, as Jerome McGann suggested in 2005, the Victorian studies community must embrace networked digital technologies in order to assume [End Page 111] a position of relevance in the postmodern academy,1 then certainly the members of RSVP have risen to this challenge. Of course, RSVP has always demonstrated a commitment to social and scholarly networking. The organization owes its very existence to the network of relationships that arose from the first and greatest of all Victorian studies collaborative projects, the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals. In the years that followed, RSVP became well known for its collegial company of scholars as well as its numerous scholarly publications, including edited anthologies and the quarterly publication of Victorian Periodicals Review. Such collaborative projects create and enhance a network of relationships, thereby promoting what network theorists call a location of “high connectivity” between individuals.2 The 2009 conference was no exception to this tradition of collegial exchange. The quality of panel presentations and conversations was superb, thanks in part to the work of an outstanding program committee: Sally Mitchell, Molly Youngkin, and Deborah Mutch. Those who attended the 2009 conference were struck by the rich and suggestive ways that the concept of “Victorian networks” was interpreted within the context of the newspaper and periodical press. Given the high quality of scholarship presented at the conference, it seemed fitting to publish a special issue of VPR focused on the conference theme. As editor of the special issue, I was impressed with the number of superb submissions I received. The five essays selected for the special issue demonstrate how the concept of “networking” can illuminate our understanding of Victorian print culture. As Laurel Brake points out in the opening essay, “‘Time’s Turbulence’: Mapping Journalism Networks,” such investigations have been enabled by the development of digital resources, which provide us with opportunities to uncover networks of affiliation among the wide variety of contributors to the Victorian print industry. Brake’s essay highlights important developments in network theory, particularly the work of Friedrich Kittler, and suggests how this scholarship may inform future research in our field. The geographical reference in Brake’s title reminds us that Victorian networks were informed by spatial considerations—the physical locations of individuals, clubs, editorial offices, and other sites of literary exchange. Of course, access to such networking locations was often constrained by gender and economic status. Joanne Shattock, in her essay, “Professional Networking, Masculine and Feminine,” not only provides insight into the crucial role of clubs and...