review of a literary journal

I found a journal in ODY called "Critical Inquiry". It is, ironically, published in Chicago by students and staff of the University of Chicago. That is ironic because I am from Chicago- and to my knowledge have never seen this publication. Critical Inquiry is a quarterly publication, labeled as 'winter', 'fall', 'summer' and 'spring' issues. The editor of the journal is W.J.T. Mitchell. He is a professor of English and Art History at the University of Chicago. According to the UChicago website, Mitchell is well known for his work with "the fields of visual culture ad iconology (the study of images across the media). He is especially known for his work on the relations of visual and verbal representations in the context of social and political issues." He has had a large influence on the publication, obviously as an editor, and some of Critical Inquiry's publications focused on public art, race and identity, sociology of literature, narratives, and psychoanalysis. The journal covers issues in many different fields in academics. 

The URL for Critical Inquiry's website is http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/. 

After browsing through a few of the issues of Critical Inquiry, I got to see how varied the pieces of writing are and how varied the authors of each piece are. For example, one piece in the Winter 2008 publication is Jacques Ranciere. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris. Then, in the same issue, there is an author names Ricardo Alarcon. This author is also the president of the National Assembly of People's Power of the Republic of Cuba. Finally, there is an author, again in the Winter 2008 publication, named Jeffery Knapp. Knapp is a professor of English at UC Berkeley. He is also currently writing a book, called ''Shakespeare Only." The authors range from professors to political leaders to famous writers to artists. 

The Critical Inquiry focuses on critically reviewing books, articles and essays. In addition, the publication includes interviews, short pieces, suggested books, etc. The main content, however; is focused around critical essays done by qualified, educated writers from all over the world. An example of some of the article titles are  'On the Relationship of Art History and Art Theory: Translators' Introduction', 'The Life and Death and Death of Colonel Blimp', and 'The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future is a Memory'. The publication, just from reading the titles alone, is very focused on analysis and also focused on serious writing. It requires a reader with a large vocabulary and an interest in dense reading to want to understand the entire publication. To be honest, I was unsure of many of the articles referenced throughout the Winter 2008 publication. 

The main reason I chose Critical Inquiry was, sadly, based on its cover. All of the covers on the publication are fascinating. There is cool art, designs, interesting historical figures and things that would seem to be interesting to read about. I was impressed by the cover art and judged a book by its cover, oh no. Regardless, if I had read some of the publications referenced throughout the issue, I think I would have gained more from Critical Inquiry, but I still enjoyed the art and the purpose of the magazine- understanding the media and representations in a social and political context.