Introduction to the Travel in Victorian Periodicals Database (TVPD) This database (TVPD) was compiled in the context of a research project on the representation of travel in Victorian periodicals conducted by Barbara Korte at the University of Freiburg. The results of the project will be published in a monograph: Travel in Victorian Periodicals, 1850-1900: Media Logic and Cultural Work. Over the course of four years, entries for the database were written and edited by Sophie Bantle, Sofia Guimarães, Janna Kaiser, Klara Machata, Özlem Sarica, Lara Trunz and Mona Zeuner (in alphabetical order). Victorian travel writing has been extensively studied for books, but the representation of travel in periodicals – in the form of travelogues, topographical descriptions and travel advice, in lengthy articles as well as short notes – has received little attention. It can be claimed, though, that periodicals had a greater impact on the Victorian culture of travel than books because they were a medium of daily life, addressed different sections of society, and engaged with travel in media-specific forms. With their own media logic, Victorian periodicals played a major role in accommodating their readers to the discourses and practices of contemporary travel. The database focuses on four widely read periodicals: o The Leisure Hour (1852–1905) was a long-lived and influential family magazine with a great number of travel-related articles. During its first two decades, the Leisure Hour’s address encompassed readers of the middle as well as the working classes. o Good Words (1860–1910) was a family magazine addressed to middle-class readers. Like the Leisure Hour it cultivated a Protestant tone. o The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (1852–1882) was addressed to middle-class female readers and situated travel in the middle-class female lifeworld, also reflecting the cultural constraints to which women’s travel was exposed. o The Boy’s Own Paper (1879–1967) was targeted at young male readers. Its engagement with travel was ...
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