@article{jeps 71535, author = {Céline Mansanti}, title = {Mainstreaming the Avant-Garde: Modernism in <i>Life</i> Magazine (New York, 1883–1936)}, volume = {1}, year = {2016}, url = {https://openjournals.ugent.be/jeps/article/id/71535/}, issue = {2}, doi = {10.21825/jeps.v1i2.2644}, abstract = {<p>This paper explores the relationship between literary modernism and mainstream culture within a little-studied American magazine, <em>Life </em>(New York, 1884-1936). It does so by looking at three ways in which <em>Life </em>presented modernism to its readers: by quoting modernist writing, and, above all, by satirizing modernist art, and by offering didactic explanations of modernist art and literature. By reconsidering some of the long-established divisions between high and low culture, and between ‘little’ and ‘bigger’ magazines, this paper contributes to a better understanding of what modernism was and meant. It also suggests that the double agenda observed in <em>Life</em> – both satirical and didactic – might be a way of defining middlebrow magazines.</p>}, month = {12}, pages = {113}, keywords = {literary modernism,mainstream,Life,American periodicals,avant-garde,middlebrow}, issn = {2506-6587}, publisher={Ghent University}, journal = {Journal of European Periodical Studies} }