• literary texts can be perceived both as works of art and as testing grounds for ideas;
• literary works participate in the history of ideas, whether understood as a continuous line of development, as a process of inheriting and correcting schemas, or as a sequence of archeological layers;
• literary texts negotiate ideological changes;
• period concepts and debates impinge on the shape of the literary texts;
• the evolution of ideas affects our reading of the literature of the past;
• individual texts reflect the changing ideas about literature itself.

Please see editorial information for more details on submissions.

The editorial board will be pleased to consider suggestions concerning books to review.

Associated forthcoming event: Knowledge and Pain (conference, May 24-26)

Recent conferences:

Dickens, Victorian Culture, Uneasy Pleasures

Eyewitness Narratives