About the Journal

Modern Language Quarterly accepts articles that pay attention to the broader scope of literary history regardless of genre or period. The focus of publication—and the sticking point—is literary history. General theory, historicist contextualizations, and self-contained close readings are not published. Essays should concern the situation and the action of literary works in time. Chronology must matter to an essay's argument or theoretical concern, together with the impact or interrelationship of imaginative texts.