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"You would obviously not see those reprinted in a modern magazine," Johnston said.
Johnston said the breadth of the University's collection is rare because many of the magazines had a low survival rate. The collection spans to 2001, though most of the magazines are from the late 1920s to early 1950s.
Maya Althouse, a sophomore with English and entomology majors from Rebersburg, Pa., said she was excited to work with the magazines and was intrigued by the relationship between the stories and culture of the time period.
"They showed me how you could take a work of fiction and portray current events and social issues," Althouse said.
Sophomore Sarah Braverman, an English major from Randolph, N.J., and a student in Carroll's class, said she chose the course because it didn't seem like any she had previously.
Despite some of the main characters being robots, Braverman said there were still human elements and emotions in the characters, as in other genres of literature she has studied. She said she appreciated the ability to review the stories with the same magazines people read in the 1920s.
"It was really interesting to hold them and use them and see just what they were reading," Braverman said.
Carroll said she hopes students have a different perspective on literary analysis with the help of these texts. She said she thinks the magazines helped students contextualize the stories and realize they had an impact on multiple generations.
"These texts were not in an isolated bubble," Carroll said.