Reading the Shape-shifting Text: the context and impact of the diverse strategies of the McSweeney's periodical, with particular attention to its status as a new approach to literature, as represented both by commentators and its creators

This thesis interrogates the cultural impact and literary significance of the McSweeney’s periodical. It argues for a particular approach to the study of the periodical form that focuses on the unusual textuality that results from a serially produced text; one of its objectives is to understand the implications of making a representation of a periodical as a whole text. The complications that result from representing a serial text composed of multiple individually authored texts are taken as productive for this thesis, as it attempts to uncover what this process reveals about how periodicals differ from the traditional objects of literary criticism. This thesis considers the McSweeney’s periodical from several perspectives at different points in its publication history, moving from its founding statements to its anthologies, and looks at it through various lenses, including an analysis of its form/style and a consideration of its politics. The intention of this thesis is to identify and describe the particular strategies of the periodical and locate them in their appropriate context.