ABSTRACT

This article is a case study of the economic ephemera of Heresies, a feminist periodical produced by feminist art workers based in New York from 1977 to 1993. Inspired by recent scholarship in periodical and print culture studies that emphasise the value of print ephemera and under-examined ‘back matter’, we consider Heresies’ advertisements and subscription forms as symbolically rich artifacts that allow us to address and understand the implications of the magazine’s perennial struggle to stay financially afloat. This was a struggle complicated by an editorial collective’s suspicion – and indeed, sometimes-outright rejection – of traditional capitalist marketing practices. The pressure of funding a magazine without compromising anti-capitalist and anti-commodity political commitments was felt hard by Heresies, which was, like so many feminist periodicals produced in the 1970s and 1980s, largely volunteer-run, underfunded, and beholden to grants, gifts, generosity, and discounts. Archival records of Heresies’ budgetary woes are sparse; advertisements and subscription forms reveal the magazine’s orientation to its audiences and its political commitments. This article explores what advertisements and subscription forms, and more generally the economic ephemera of the magazines’ front and back matter, reveal about the culture of this specific periodical and the networks that supported it and that it sustained.

摘要

本文是对异端经济蜉蝣的案例研究，这是一本由 1977 年至 1993 年在纽约的女权主义艺术工作者制作的女权主义期刊。受到近期期刊和印刷文化研究的启发，这些研究强调印刷蜉蝣的价值和不足。检查“后备材料”，我们认为是异端邪说广告和订阅表格作为象征性丰富的人工制品，使我们能够解决和理解该杂志为维持财务状况而长期奋斗的影响。由于编辑集体对传统资本主义营销实践的怀疑——实际上，有时甚至是彻底的拒绝——使这场斗争变得更加复杂。在不损害反资本主义和反商品政治承诺的情况下为杂志提供资金的压力被异端邪说（Heresies ）感受到了，就像 1970 年代和 1980 年代生产的许多女权主义期刊一样，主要由志愿者经营，资金不足，并且受助于赠款，礼物、慷慨和折扣。异端的档案记录'预算问题很少；广告和订阅表格揭示了该杂志对读者的定位和它的政治承诺。本文探讨了哪些广告和订阅形式，以及更普遍的杂志正面和背面的经济昙花一现，揭示了这个特定期刊的文化以及支持它和维持它的网络。