Before Harry Potter and soap operas, magazine novel was first cliffhanger

The soap opera, the mini-series, and more recently, the Harry Potter series, are modern-day series with cliffhangers that keep people coming back for more. However, these literary techniques are nothing new. A new book by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher explains that the serial theme and cliffhanger technique are ideas that have been around since the 19th century.

"While broadcast media were obviously not yet developed, magazines were enormously popular in the 19 th century," said Patricia Okker, professor of English and author of Social Stories: The Magazine Novel in Nineteenth-Century America. "One of the reasons magazines were so successful is that they featured novels written by the nation's most popular authors. Issued in weekly or monthly installments, these novels appeared alongside news items, fashion plates and political editorials."

In her research, Okker found that these serialized novels were an important part of contemporary culture during the 19th century. Readers wrote to their favorite authors, offering advice about specific characters and events, and discussed the stories with each other, just as fans of soap operas and television series do today. Authors often included references to current events because these novels were such an important part of the daily culture, Okker said.

"Serials are still popular today on television, but the serial novel within magazines has largely been abandoned because they must be read from beginning to end," Okker said. "Serials in broadcast media today no longer require viewers to catch every episode. Novels simply don't work like that. I can still enjoy my favorite television series if I miss an episode, but if readers skip two or three chapters of a novel, they are almost certainly lost."

Okker's previous book, Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors, also focused on the periodical history of literature. She is currently working on her third book, Boardinghouse Culture, which explores how magazines and novels portrayed boardinghouses in the 19th century.

2003

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Patricia Okker
English Department

University of Virginia Press

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