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Currency for how long, to what end?

by
October 2007, no. 295

Meanjin vol. 66, no. 2: On globalisation and postcolonial culture edited by Ian Britain

$22.95 pb, 232 pp

Griffith Review 17: Staying alive edited by Julianne Schultz

$19.95 pb, 264 pp

Currency for how long, to what end?

by
October 2007, no. 295

They were once called literary magazines, or journals, though dailiness was never aimed for. Monthliness is popular now, or, in the case of Meanjin and Griffith Review, quarterliness. But what kind of currency do these two magazines aim for? ‘New writing in Australia’ proclaims the subtitle of Meanjin’s latest volume; along with the banner title ‘Globalisation and Postcolonial Culture’, and the subheading ‘Before and After’. ‘New Stories’ and ‘New Poems’ are also listed on the cover, along with a serious frontal portrait of novelist Amit Chaudhuri, on ‘The Fate of the Novel’. There’s quite a bit of semiotic activity going on here, not to mention marketing. Currency – newness, fingers on the pulse, predictive ability – is on the agenda.

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