HS Magazines and Avant-Garde Cultures

The interdisciplinary study of magazines allows us to gain insight into a specific form of media which has helped to mirror and shape the world we live in. As a complex system of knowledge production and circulation, magazines partake of the aesthetic, political, and sociocultural realms. While they serve as platforms of communication and foster the exchange of ideas and opinions, magazines have often become the drivers of innovation. This seems to hold all the more true for the print and online magazines of transnational avant-garde cultures, which we will concentrate on in this class. Although a niche product with a limited number of readers, many avant-garde magazines have managed to trigger transformations, be it with regard to social or ecological awareness or with regard to innovative aesthetics.

This graduate seminar – which will be run as a Blockseminar on May 26, 27, and 28, 2021 with a preparatory pre-seminar meeting – is open to students of Fachbereich 06 as well as to members of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. It will be taught online.