Sederi Yearbook 32


Sederi 32
Sederi 32 — 2022
EDITOR
Marta Cerezo Moreno
MANAGING EDITOR
Isabel Guerrero Llorente
REVIEW EDITOR
Miguel Ramalhete
ISSN 1135-7789

María José Coperías-Aguilar, “Between fictionality and reality: The ‘novels’ in the Gentleman’s Journal.” SEDERI 32 (2022): 9‒29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2022.1                                                         Download PDF

Abstract

The Gentleman’s Journal (1692–1694), generally acknowledged as the first literary English magazine, included in each issue short narratives presented as “novels.” Published by using a fictive letter written from London to a gentleman in the country to keep him both informed and entertained, the use of this letter format brings together a number of elements that will result in the confrontation of fictionality and reality. This paper will discuss the way in which format and content constantly subvert each other throughout the thirty-two issues of the journal, especially in relation to the nature, titles, and content of the “novels.”

Keywords: Restoration prose fiction; early English periodicals; Gentleman’s Journal; fictionality and reality; letter writing.

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