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About This Journal

Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts was founded in 1959 by the English Department of Wayne State University. The journal was designed to advance the study of literature and the other arts, and to function as a medium for the scholarly explication and evaluation of artists and their works. While periodically shifting its focus in response to developments within the fields of literary and cultural studies, Criticism has, throughout its history, maintained its overall commitment to examine the arts and literatures from all periods and nations, and from a variety of scholarly disciplines and critical perspectives. In its current incarnation, Criticism aims to present contemporary thought at its most vital and to serve as a forum for conversations about the nature of scholarly criticism itself.

The journal’s editors welcome methodologically driven, argument-based scholarship of all kinds, whether advancing fresh areas of study and critical inquiry, engaging with newly emergent fields and critical/theoretical approaches to the arts and the humanities, or practicing traditional modes of scholarship and thinking in a reflective manner. Essays submitted to Criticism must be original, unpublished work that is not under review elsewhere. We do not accept simultaneous submissions.

Articles and reviews published in Criticism reflect a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on literature and the arts across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Areas of particular interest include: cultural studies; current critical debates; experimental theoretical models; film and media studies; gender studies; literature of all kinds; music and performance studies; politically and philosophically informed critical approaches; queer studies; and visual culture.

The journal regularly publishes special issues. Past special issues have focused on topics such as “Critical Air Studies,” “The Avant-Garde at War,” “Jack Smith: Beyond the Rented World,” and “Andy Warhol.” Scholars interested in editing a special issue are welcome to send the Editor a brief proposal outlining the issue’s aims and contents.

Criticism is published four times a year by Wayne State University Press.