Centre for Modern European Literature and Culture

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Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature

The Centre for Modern European Literature and Culture edits a book series, Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature, published by Palgrave Macmillan. The series is intended for all readers with an interest in modern European literature (including English literature in its relation to continental literature), literary theory, continental philosophy as it intersects with the literary, psychoanalysis, and the rapidly growing area of Medical Humanities.

Each volume in the series is aimed at a broad range of readers, from postgraduates to professional academics to more general readers and critics with an interest in modern European literature.

Editors

About the series

Impetus and scope

Many of the most significant European writers and literary movements of the modern period have traversed national, linguistic, and disciplinary borders. The principal aim of the Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature series is to create a forum for work of the highest calibre that challenges the strictures of national, linguistic, and cultural borders within Europe and engages in the comparative study of literary traditions in the modern period (c. 1750 to the present). Specific areas of research that the series supports include European Romanticism, the avant-garde, modernism and postmodernism, literary theory, the international reception of European writers, the relations between modern European literature and the other arts, and the impact of other discourses (philosophical, political, and scientific) upon that literature. In addition to studies of works written in the major modern European languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish), the series also includes volumes on the literature of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and promotes research that engages with literary relations between Western and Eastern Europe and that questions the centre/periphery model.

One of the most important recent developments in the field of literary studies has been a return to research that is archivally grounded (as illustrated by the XIIth International Conference of the British Comparative Literature Association, ‘Archive’, hosted by the Centre for Modern European Literature in July 2010). The Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature series aims to promote research that makes use of archival material, while also strongly supporting work of a more theoretical nature.

Format

Each volume in the series includes a series preface by the General Editors, outlining the scope and the aims of the series. This preface will be sent in advance to those wishing to submit manuscripts for consideration. Each volume in the series should be 80,000–90,000 words and may include illustrations. Given the focus of the series, quotations from literary works should generally be in the language of original composition (especially when those works were written in French, German, Italian, or Spanish), and English translations should be included in all cases. The justification for this lies in the fact that research of the highest quality in the field of modern European literature can for the most part only be achieved by those engaging with works in the original, and that the kinds of close reading upon which persuasive arguments depend can only be carried out if the original is included. However, in order to ensure that the series achieves the widest possible readership, all volumes in the series should include English translations of all quotations in foreign languages. This also enables authors to engage, if they so wish, with questions of translation, an essential issue for a series focusing on communication across borders, be they national, linguistic, or disciplinary in nature. The series includes single- and co-authored monographs, as well as collections of essays on a specific theme.

A complete list of titles in the series may be found at Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature.

Submissions

All submissions are peer-reviewed by experts in the relevant field(s), and also require approval by the General Editors and Palgrave’s Commissioning Editor. The Editorial Board, made up of scholars of international standing, is also consulted as appropriate. The priority is to ensure that the series establishes itself as a benchmark in the field of modern European literary studies.

The General Editors welcome submissions from authors interested in publishing either monographs or edited collections. In the first instance, we need to see a book proposal and sample chapter(s). The proposal and a sample chapter(s) should be sent to one of the General Editors, who would also be happy to supply further information on the series if necessary.

Contact details

Ben Hutchinson: b.hutchinson@kent.ac.uk
Shane Weller: s.j.weller@kent.ac.uk