CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal ISSN 1481-4374
CLCWeb Library of Research and Information
<http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/aims.html> © Purdue University Press
The Aims and Objectives of CLCWeb:
Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal

    1) CLCWeb is a peer-refereed journal of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, published online quarterly in March, June, September, and December. For more detail, see also Procedures of Publication at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/proced1.html>  and Procedures of Submission at <htttp://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/proced2.html>.
    2) CLCWeb publishes scholarship in the widest definition of the discipline of comparative literature and culture, in combining comparative literature with cultural studies as "comparative cultural studies." Comparative cultural studies is a contextual approach in the study of culture in all of its products and processes; its theoretical and methodological framework is built on tenets borrowed from the discipline of comparative literature and cultural studies and from a range of thought including (radical) constructivism, communication theories, systems theories, and literary and culture theory; in comparative cultural studies focus is on theory and method as well as application and on the study of process(es) rather than on the "what" of the object(s) of study; in comparative cultural studies metaphorical argumentation and description are discouraged. The postulate of comparative literature to work in a global and international context and with a plurality of methods and approaches, inter-disciplinarity, and, if and when required, including team work is regarded a standard objective of the journal. In comparative literature as understood here as well as in its extension, in comparative cultural studies, it is the processes of communicative action(s) in culture and the production of culture and the how of  these processes that constitute the main objectives of research and study. The epistemological bases of comparative cultural studies are in constructivism (see Alex Riegler, Radical Constructivism at <http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/>; see also Steven Totosy, "Constructivism and Comparative Cultural Studies" at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library/totosy(constructivism).html>) while in methodology the contextual systemic and empirical approach is favored. However, comparative cultural studies does not exclude textual analysis proper or other established fields of study. CLCWeb aims at publishing scholarship in comparative literature and culture following principles outlined in chapter one of Steven Totosy's Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application (Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998, see at <http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/books/totosy98/>) as well as the notions and principles outlined in Steven Totosy, "From Comparative Literature Today toward Comparative Cultural Studies" in CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal 1.3 (1999): <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb99-3/totosy99.html>. The journal's primary focus is the publication of work in the study of culture including literature where expressions of culture are understood in an international and global and cross-disciplinary context. Expressions of culture including but not restricted to literature are understood as the activity, the production, and the reception of these expressions that are connected to and dependent on other forms, situations, and activities of human expression. The creation, production, audience/readership, and reception/appreciation of literature as a cultural (social, psychological, historical, political, economic, etc.) activity is, by definition, "comparative" and "systemic," in reflection of the interrelatedness and self-referentiality of these activities. Thus, the research and study of such activities and their products are best performed by paying attention to their contextual nature while this research and study should be executed in the mode of observation, that is, empirically (evidence and knowledge based and observed), in addition to the theoretical and methodological notions of system and comparison. CLCWeb welcomes new work in literary, critical, and culture theory and methods / comparative literary history / comparative cultural studies / cultural studies / (comparative) media and communication studies / the comparison of primary texts across languages and cultures / translation studies / marginalities in comparison / diaspora, exile, migrant, and ethnic minority writing / feminist theory and criticism / gay/lesbian writing / comparative popular culture / film and other media and literature / lesser-known literatures in a comparative context / cross-disciplinary studies where literary texts and literary problems are examined with the use of sociological, economic, psychological, historical, etc., frameworks and methods / the history of publishing, the book, and writing / audience studies incl. readership / pedagogy and culture incl. literature / studies on new trends in the study of literature and culture / and the introduction of new works and authors in a comparative context.
    3) CLCWeb publishes Book Review Articles in comparative literature and culture. Publishers are invited to mail one copy to the editor of of the journal (Steven Totosy, 8 Sunset Road, Winchester, MA 01890 USA; e-mail <clcweb@purdue.edu>) and a second copy of the book to the reviewer whose address is forwarded to the publisher upon decision to review. The length of a book review article should be between 3000-6000 words (for the style sheet of the journal go to the journal's Procedures of Submission for Publication at <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/proced2.html>.
    4) CLCWeb publishes Bibliographies and other research material in the field in its Library of Research and Information in Comparative Literature and Culture <http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/library.html>.
    5) CLCWeb publishes thematic issues and welcomes submission of topics for such special issues. A thematic issue proposed is first assessed for approval by the advisory board of CLCWeb. Thematic issues are edited by the guest editor(s) and the selection and acceptance of material in a thematic issue is entrusted to the guest editor(s). Final approval of a thematic issue and its material rests with the editor of CLCWeb.
    6) The Purdue University Press series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/compstudies.htm> is affiliated with CLCWeb and selected papers from the year's work are published in annual volumes in the series.


CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal ISSN 1481-4374
CLCWeb Library of Research and Information
<http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/aims.html> © Purdue University Press