Modern Language Quarterly is an academic journal devoted to the study of literary history, and it encourages scholars to submit articles that explore a broad range of literary history, not limited to a particular genre or period of history. The core concern of the journal is the history of literature itself, how literary works are produced and developed in different historical and social contexts, and how these works reflect and influence the culture and society of their time.

Journals do not tend to publish general theoretical discussions, simple contextualization of historicism, or independent close readings based solely on texts. Instead, it favors articles that offer an in-depth analysis of the interplay between a literary work and its context. These articles should be able to reveal the temporality (i.e. the relationship between the work and its time) and the role of the literary work, and show how the literary work responded to or shaped the social reality and cultural trends of the time.