The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation (ECTI)
The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation is the premiere destination for theoretically-informed research on eighteenth-century literature, history, and culture. Over the past fifty years, the journal’s editorial commitment to publishing boundary-pushing scholarship has helped to reshape the field of eighteenth-century studies. From cultural studies to feminism to postcolonial studies, the new economic history, queer studies, disability studies, science studies, environmental studies, and the anthropocene, ECTI has consistently introduced readers to new approaches to the period. Multidisciplinary and global in scope, ECTI is committed to continuing to expand the field in new directions. The editors welcome submissions (7,000-10,00 words) on the period between 1660 and 1830 that combine rigorous scholarship with substantive interventions that redefine how we read, understand, and teach the long eighteenth century. In addition to articles, ECTI publishes substantive review essays (1,200 to 2,000 words) that discuss recently published scholarly works in the context of current developments and debates.
History of ECTI
In 1976 Joel Weinsheimer and Jeff Smitten took over Studies in Burke and His Time and rechristened the journal The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation. Over the following years, the journal, in the words of its first editors, “continually expanded its scope, growing from a concentration on Burke and politics to its present multidisciplinary breadth.” The term “theory” in the journal’s title is a legacy of the so-called “theory wars” of the 1970s. Although the academic terrain looks very different today, our editorial commitment to innovative scholarship remains unchanged.
