Please send essay submissions and queries by email to John K. Young, Editor-in-Chief (youngj@marshall.edu), with “Submission to Textual Cultures” in the subject line. For submissions related to East Asian studies; Spanish, Latin American, and Global South literatures; French, Francophone, and Occitan literatures; or Germanic literatures, please contact the respective section editor (see Editorial Board).
If you are interested in writing a review for Textual Cultures, please contact the appropriate book review editor with your query.
- British, the Americas, and Global Anglophone Book Review Editor: Amy Gore (amy.gore@ndsu.edu)
- European Book Review Editors: Paola Italia, Università di Bologna (paola.italia@unibo.it) and Adriana Merenda, New York University (am11726@nyu.edu)
All authors are asked to keep in mind the suggestions on the page Creating Accessible Research Articles: Creating Accessible Articles in Word on the IU Scholarworks site.
Essay submissions
In addition to a manuscript in Microsoft Word, authors should include a brief and essential abstract (a summary of 150-250 words not taken from the essay itself); a 100–150-word biography of the author(s); a brief list of key terms.
House Style
TC style adheres to the latest edition (17) of the Chicago Manual of Style, except where this style sheet indicates otherwise.
Formatting: Fonts, Punctuation, Terminology
Font Style: Strip all special formatting styles from Microsoft Word and use a font, such as Times New Roman, Garamond, Goudy Old Style, or Bell in 12pt. Use Word’s Insert footnote feature for notes.
Punctuation: Unlike the standard American style of punctuation, TC aims to reproduce the cited author’s punctuation within the quotation marks. In some cases, this will result in double punctuation at the close of a sentence (especially when the quotation contains the author’s question mark). The citing author’s punctuation always goes outside the quotation marks.
TC distinguishes among hyphens, n-dashes, and m-dashes. Hyphens (-) are used strictly for hyphenation. N-dashes (–) are used for serial sequences, including pages (73–4, 103–04, 200–10, 1970–75) and years (always in full form: 1970–1975, not 1970–75). M-dashes (—) are used for appositions and take a space on each side.
All ellipses that are not part of the original text are bracketed [. . .] — note the spacing between the dots.
Lowercase roman numerals are reserved for signatures (for example, AAiir). Chapter numbers should be in uppercase roman numerals. Entries that use lowercase roman numerals (pagination of introductions) should be in small caps.
r (recto) and v (verso) are italicized but not in super- or subscript.
Terminology: To distinguish carefully among material features of manuscripts and books, especially early printed books, TC distinguishes between poetic verses and transcriptional lines. TC distinguishes between the sheet (folio) that is then folded to make a bifolium with two chartae (two manuscript ‘pages’ = always two chartae). MSS and early printed books that are numbered by the recto of each charta are chartulated, rather than “paginated”. If an entire sheet, the raw material of a bifolium, is indicated it is a “folio”.
Illustrations
All figures should be submitted as jpg or tiff files at 300 dpi or greater. Please provide a separate list of all illustrations with captions. Before publication, image permissions will be required.
Citations and References
TC relies on an exact referencing system coordinated among the body of the essay, the footnotes (not endnotes), and a list of Works Cited organized by author and/or editor. Please avoid reliance on additional referencing systems, such as abbreviations, keeping in mind that the readership of TC does not belong to a single national field. Consequently, to readers in Italy the “STC” will be as familiar as the “GSLI” is to scholars of Anglo-American textual studies. It is especially important not to rely on the use of sigle, or initials to indicate manuscripts in diverse traditions, such as Gg, A, B6, etc. These change from tradition to tradition of individual works and only make what we do less penetrable by young scholars in our own fields. If necessary, the sigla can go after the first full reference to the MS, but the library, collection, and shelf-mark should be noted in each subsequent use for clarity.
Citations: Titles of poetic works, long and lyric, are in italics (not quotation marks as in the American use for short poems). Novels or long collections are in italics. Short prose pieces are in quotation marks.
References: In general, reserve footnotes for longer observations. References in the body of the essay are indicated parenthetically indicating the author’s/editor’s last NAME (in small caps), year of publication, and page/pages. If the author’s name is given in the sentence, cite only the year and page/s. Multiple references, leading — for example — readers to several related essays, should be cited in a footnote, using the AUTHOR/EDITOR, date, page/s system, unless the entire essay or item is referenced, then AUTHOR or EDITOR and date are sufficient. In cases where two or more sources are published by the same author in the same year, be sure to distinguish between them by assigning them letter suffixes (“a”, “b”, “c”, etc.). These designations must also appear in the Works Cited list. In those cases in which a volume number is referenced as well, the number is included = COLUCCIA 2008, 3: 29–31. Otherwise, in parenthetical bibliographic information, always use a comma: (MANN 1994, 75).
The syntactic-punctuational logical of references in footnotes is the following: If the reference directs the reader to the work: see MANN 1994; if the author is mentioned or discussed in the text of the footnote: as Mann notes in his most recent studies (1994, 72). Note: in the second example small caps are not used.
Works Cited List
If necessary, the list can be subdivided into the categories of Manuscripts and Printed Sources, or Manuscripts and Printed and Digital Sources.
Manuscripts should be listed by:
The City in which they are found, the Library, the Collection, and the Shelf-mark (together with previous marks listed after olim), e.g.:
Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library MS 1408.
London, British Library MS Sloane 987.
Edinburgh, National Archives of Scotland, GD 112: Breadalbane Muns.
Printed references should be arranged generally by:
AUTHOR (Last NAME first [note SMALL CAPS]. Year of publication. Title. Place of publication: publisher.
Articles: note the placement of punctuation, including comma after journal title.
KNIGHT, Jeffrey Todd. 2009. “Fast Bind, Fast Find: The History of the Book and the Modern Collection”. Criticism, 51: 79–104.
Articles, multiple authors in a collection: note placement of pages, full spelling of “edited”, and small caps:
BOFFEY, Julia, and John J. THOMPSON. 1989. “Anthologies and Miscellanies: Production and Choice of Texts”. Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1395–1475, edited by Jeremy GRIFFITHS and Derek PEARSALL, 279–315. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Expansion of an initial in initialed names: Doyle, A[nthony] I., Parkes, M[alcolm] B.
POLLARD, A[lfred] W., and Gilbert R. REDGRAVE. 1976–1991. Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475–1640, 2d ed., revised and enlarged by William A. JACKSON, Frederic S. FERGUSON, and Katherine F. PANTZER. 3 Vols. London: Bibliographical Society.
Editor for author: in those cases where the editor or edition of a work is discussed, or the orientation to the study is through editions, always cite the work by the editor. In those cases in which the name of the author is in the title, follow the title as it appears:
SANGUINETI, Federico, ed. 2001. Dantis Alagherii Comedia, edizione critica. Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo.
Otherwise, the name of the author should be added before or after the title but not in italics:
BELLONI, Gino, Furio BRUGNOLO, H. Wayne STOREY, and Stefano ZAMPONI, eds. 2003. Francesco Petrarca, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta. Rome–Padua: Vatican Library–Antenore.
Entries in which titles that stand in for the author (e.g. The Riverside Shakespeare), use the shortened form (RIVERSIDE) in small caps and italics, followed by the date and full title.
Use “In” to clarify when a work that would normally be italicized appears within a larger volume:
MENGALDO, Pier Vincenzo, ed. 1996. De vulgari eloquentia. In Dante Alighieri, Opere minori, vol. 3, tomo 1: De vulgari eloquentia, Monarchia, 1–237. Milano–Napoli: Ricciardi–Mondadori.
Those works for which reprints are used by scholars, the date of the edition should appear in order to indicate the historical context of the original research:
LOEW, E[lias] A[very]. [1914] 1999. The Beneventan Script: A History of the South Italian Minuscule. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press (rpt. Sandpiper Books).
Note: When we prepare your essay for typesetting, you will notice a number of formatting changes (see below). You do not need to make these changes yourself; they are automatically implemented based on a template used by the typesetter.
Review submissions
Please adopt the following guidelines to assist the Book Reviews Editor in preparing your document for publication.
Language
The journal regularly publishes essays and reviews in English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and occasionally in German, Russian, and other languages. Our goal is to publish scholarship regardless of the language of composition, within the limits of our resources.
Length
Short reviews (of a single work of scholarship or exhibit) are 750-1250 words and review essays (of two or three recently published and related works of scholarship) are 1750-2000 words.
Formatting
Reviews should be submitted to the book reviews editor as a word document, using 12 point Times New Roman font.
Header
Please begin with the reviewed volume’s bibliographic information organized by:
AUTHOR (last name in small caps), first name. Date. Title (in italics). Place of publication: publisher. ISBN 13. # of pages (and, where appropriate, illustrations/figures/musical examples). Hardcover or softcover. Price (preferably in dollars and/or euros).
Example: ROUND, Philip H. 2010. Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indiana Country, 1663–1880. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 978-0-8078-7120-1. Pp. XII + 282 and 38 illustrations. Paperback. $26.95.
Signature
The reviewer’s name and affiliation are placed at the end of the review, justified right: first the author’s name and on a second line her/his affiliation in italics.
Example:
Alan W. Friedman
University of Texas, Austin
Quotations
Please cite all direct quotes from the item being reviewed with page numbers and do not include footnotes or bibliography. References to other works should be kept at an absolute minimum.
In cases of doubt, consult the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) or the editor in charge of reviews.
Content
Textual Cultures seeks to provide a fair and critically balanced review on the most recent scholarship of the “text” in diverse cultural contexts. Book reviews should provide a clear summary of the work and a discussion of its strengths and weaknesses. It may also address the work’s contribution to current scholarship in the field, its innovations, its audience (who might be most interested in reading it), and its usefulness for teaching and the classroom. The content should be clearly organized and structured, with a readability aimed at engaging with a wide audience.
Deadlines
We request book reviews to be submitted within approximately two (2) months of the book’s receipt. If you are no longer able to provide a review, you will be required to mail the book back to the book reviews editor so that they may provide it to another reviewer.
Publication
Textual Cultures is hosted by IUScholarWorks and provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. No author fees associated with submission or publication are charged. Whole issues of the journal and individual essays are available as downloadable pdf files. Past issues are archived through IUScholarWorks. Because the journal publishes digitally, no gratis print copies will be provided to authors. Textual Cultures publishes biannually, and book reviews will be published in the next available issue.