DIACRITICS

ABOUT|

Diacritics, a review journal of criticism and theory, was founded in 1971 by the Department of Romance Studies, under the editorship of David I. Grossvogel. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press since 1977, the journal maintains editorial offices in the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell. Members of its editorial board are Cornell faculty and graduate students who are nominated and elected by the board.

Diacritics was one of the first academic journals to bring continental theory to the US. In the 1970s, it published translations of the work of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Hélène Cixous, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Umberto Eco, and articles by Paul de Man, Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said, Fredric Jameson, and Barbara Johnson. Historically its preferred mode has been the review article that analyzes in detail the theoretical arguments and assumptions of the most significant books in the humanities and social sciences. It periodically publishes special issues on topics or on thinkers of great current interest. Over the last twenty years Diacritics has published important work in gender studies, cultural studies, queer studies, political theory, literary theory, and psychoanalysis, including articles by Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, Leo Bersani, and Slavoj Zizek.

Diacritics maintains its role as one of the most distinguished academic journals on the scene, as it continues to embrace a plurality of theoretical approaches and critical perspectives.

Editorial offices:

Diacritics
Department of Romance Studies
Morrill Hall, Room 105A
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

Bruno Bosteels, Editor
bb228@cornell.edu

Kate Bloodgood, Assistant Editor
kb31@cornell.edu

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STAFF|

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Forthcoming Issues:

Theories of Medieval Iberia

Special editors, Oscar Martín and Simone Pinet

At a moment when Iberia and, especially, medieval Iberia seems to be a necessary point of reference for any reflection on tolerance and conflict, conviviality and its disillusions, practiced multiculturalism, political discourse, empire, and the negotiation of identity, a gathering of studies in a theoretical key, from the early through the late middle ages, is not only necessary but might turn out to be illuminating for the contemporary critical mind. Contributions by Alain Badiou, Josiah Blackmore, Marina S. Brownlee, Jean Dangler, Cristina Guardiola, Gregory S. Hutcheson, Oscar Martín, Maria Rosa Menocal, Simone Pinet, Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco, and David A. Wacks.

Taking Exception to the Exception

Special editors, Jason Frank and Tracy McNulty

"The exception," Carl Schmitt wrote in Political Theology, "is more interesting than the rule.  The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything.  In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition." Embracing the extraordinary vitality of "the event," while decrying the pale repetition of the norm, contemporary theoretical discourses across multiple fields and disciplines -- law, political theory, theology, history, literature, and philosophy -- would seem to concur with Schmitt's high estimation of the exception "in its absolute purity."  Without retreating to a lost normativity, foundationalism, formalism, or legalism, the essays in this special issue raise a number of pressing political and theoretical questions:  What conceptual rubrics are maintained and reiterated by the seemingly inexorable logics of norm and exception?  What kinds of theoretical investigation are authorized and precluded by this preoccupation?  How do they structure our political discussions, and direct and constrain our political options? Contributions by Susan Buck-Morss, Gert Buelens and Dominiek Hoens, Jason Frank, Bonnie Honig, Jeffrey Librett, Tracy McNulty, Andrew Norris, Kam Shapiro, and Erik Vogt.

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CALL FOR PAPERS|

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES|

Notes for Contributors to Diacritics

Diacritics is concerned with the problems of criticism and devotes each issue primarily to review articles that discuss recent works of criticism. The journal has no formal policy governing the choice of books to be reviewed or critical perspectives to be explored, and welcomes suggestions and contributions from all quarters. This pluralistic policy does not imply advocacy of critical eclecticism: diacritical discussion entails distinguishing the methodological and ideological issues which critics encounter and setting forth a critical position in relation to them. A review article is not just a long review that summarizes the work(s) under discussion, makes comparisons to other scholarship, and pronounces judgment; it should be the occasion both for a critically positioned account of the work(s) and—just as vitally—for a response or supplement in which the reviewer's own theses and/or positions are introduced and argued. Thus articles in this category should be conceived as fully developed essays in which the critical reviewing and the presentation of the author's own insights are integrated by a unifying thesis or perspective.

Prospective contributors are strongly urged to choose the review article mode and to take into account the journal's aim to reach a wide audience interested in the general problems of criticism. Diacritics occasionally publishes articles in categories other than that of review articles.

TEXTS/CONTEXTS--essays dealing with major theoretical problems or illustrating adventurous approaches to the interpretation of texts;

RESPONSE--rejoinders to articles previously published in Diacritics or in other journals.

INTERVIEW--exchanges with well-known critics or, occasionally, with artists that may be either edited transcripts of recorded conversations or dialogues conducted in writing.

Texts submitted to Diacritics will be read by several members of the editorial board and evaluated collectively. Solicited articles are subject to the same evaluative procedures and are judged on the same standards as unsolicited material. The editors sometimes need more than the customary six months to complete evaluations: authors are asked to wait six months before mailing queries about the status of their submissions.
Diacritics submissions must adhere to the documentation style recommended by the Modern Language Association and asks authors to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the directives of the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The author's name should not appear on the manuscript: eliminate self-references from the text if those references will identify you and put any references to your previous work in the third person. Authors should familiarize themselves with Diacritics so as to have its format clearly in mind.

1. Send us two printouts of your manuscript.
2. Submit an abstract of 100 words or less.
3. Articles should normally be 9000-11,000 words in length.
4. Manuscripts must conclude with a list of works cited that provides full references in MLA format for all works quoted from or mentioned.
5 References in the text should contain enough information to avoid confusion or ambiguity; full bibliographical information should be included in the list of works cited. Page references are in brackets, without "p." or "pp.," with no comma before the page number: [23] or [Miller 23] or [Miller, "Bringing Up Demons" 23].
6. List footnotes separately at the end of your manuscript, after the list of works cited. Bibliographical information provided in the list of works cited should not be duplicated in footnotes.
7. Quote material from foreign sources in translation. Whenever the text in question has been published in translation, use that translation when quoting from it and cite the translation in the list of works cited. When quoting a work that has not been translated, provide your own translation. If the context requires it, foreign terms or phrases may be included in brackets after the quoted item; similarly, in the case of poetry or passages in which the original language is crucial, original and translation may be quoted in full.

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