Small Magazines And Literature

In the 1980s, the comprehensive book-review periodical entitled Reading, issued by the SDX Joint Publishing Company, exerted significant and unique influence on the reading circles, whose literary selection affected the cultural attitude and ideological transmutation of that age. In all the versions from 1979 to 1989, the number of articles involving literature is up to 1742, more than 40% of all the articles published each year. The present paper mainly focuses on the study of its literary selection. Based on this periodical, the writer tries to review the literary selection and reception in the 1980s by classifying and making data statistics to the versions of Reading. Reasons and significance of its literary selection as well as the roles it made in the 1980s are studied in order to present the original literature conditions in that age, taking into account its editors, readers, the era it was published in and the influence or constraint the outer social system exerted on it. The greater significance about its selection and valuation lies in the ideological emancipation and social development promoted by the literary contention this periodical gave rise to. The emphasis showed by its literary selection on freedom and human being, especially on individuals, actually accelerated the progress of intellectual and reading circles from singleness to multi-variance.