The paper first outlines the changes of Czech modernist periodicals after 1900 by referencing the journals Ženský obzor and Ženská revue, Přehled, Novinna, Rozvoj, Stopa, as well as Umělecký měsíčník and Scéna. In the second half, controversies over new psychological and/or anthropological ideas coming from Vienna and their local counterparts (L.
Klíma) are used to illustrate the transformation of periodicals which reflected the changing approach to the function and task of art / literature in the widely open world of modern life forms and their (technical) means.