English literary journals provide the perfect platform of information and intellectual interaction about the goings-on in the world of literary theory and culture. They provide excellent opportunity to young researchers to get their ideas published and get valuable peer-reviews on the same; while for the general reader these journals are the perfect inroads to the contemporary works on literature and literary culture. Most significantly; English literary journals offer a platform for intellectual exchange and exposure. Getting to know the important people researching or writing on one’s area of interest often helps in developing a society of like-minded writers and researchers.
English literary journals go back a long time in history to their growth from the magazine and periodical culture in late nineteenth century. From a general and popular parameter of writing and readership, journals became more academic with the growth of universities and a standardized academic culture. English literary journals today carry and propose a prestige in the world of scholars and students alike and almost all major universities in the world today have the affiliated departments publishing journals from respective university press or an affiliated publishing house. Thus the English departments of universities; under an editorial board comprising members of faculty and researchers, form and maintain literary journals corresponding to various areas of interest. Thus one could have several journals produced and published by one English Department of a major university where different members of the faculty and research body correspond to different journal themes and thrust areas. Renaissance Studies, Victorian Studies, Twentieth Century Literature and Postmodern Literary Theory are generally the more popular and active themes in English literary journals although it is quite common to see niche areas of research such as Old Norse Sagas and Old English Poetry widely published and circulated in journals that strictly cater to such study.
Literary journals in English are also formed and maintained by private bodies and organizations whereupon literary authors, critics and reviewers come together and form a team of editors and contributors under the patronage and sponsorship of major publishing houses and literary bodies. Depending on the publishing house affiliated to it, each journal maintains and corresponds to a particular style in citation and referencing and contributors are advised by editors to follow the same in their articles and essays. Most literary journals include works of fiction, poetry as well as reviews alongside critical essays and articles and it is a delight to find a paper on Shakespeare’s sonnets along with an original work of a promising or established poet of the day.
Literary journals often act as sister bodies to major conferences and literary festivals whereby the works presented by leading scholars and writers at the conference are selected through an editorial process and compiled for publication under the rubric of the theme of the conference. In the present world of academia faced with funding cuts in humanities, interdisciplinary studies form a major thrust area of leading university departments. English literary journals thus often incorporate the texture of culture-studies and it is quite common now to find cutting-edge ideas on postmodern and post-colonial cultural conditions published in the form of papers in English literary journals along with works on purely literary issues and ideas. New areas of study such as Medical Humanities have begun to emerge in the wake of such academic trends and have found many literary journals to support and publicize them. Thus papers and articles on strictly literary figures and novels may co-exist with demographic, feminist and labor issues inflected through literary texts. The editorial boards of major English literary journals emphasize on cross-cultural cross-disciplinary themes and encourage prospective contributors to do the same in order to make their journals more interesting, contemporary and committed to the cultural phenomena of the day. Such academic journals have varying subscription rules but are often free and are easily available in all leading libraries.
Although most literary journals are published and circulated in book form, there is this evolving trend of online journals today that is fast becoming a new order of academic publication. While there are still some misgivings about the authenticity and merit of online journals regarding the issues of editorial purity and adherence to an acceptable typographic style, it is an unavoidable and often welcome appendage to the culture of literary journals in a world that promotes environmental concerns in saving paper as well as fast circulation on the internet. It is an obvious fact that an online journal would be much easily accessible to the general reader upon opening an account in the relevant website without having to rely on any institutional affiliation or postal service. With the easy availability of online payment options through debit or credit cards, subscription could also be maintained on an instantaneous basis. Online versions are particularly common and popular among Postgraduate Journals which often have to adopt a more cost-effective method for their maintenance and circulation.
English literary journals offer a fascinating world of academic research and cultural study; along with glimpses of new works of literature that often go on to become path-breaking in posterity. With their dynamic exchanges and dialogues, journals form a major part of modern academic and literary culture of today.