The View from Strasbourg: Translational Readings of Decadence by the Guest Editors

Abstract

This special issue of Volupté turns to France at the end of the nineteenth century to consider the ways that artists, writers, and critics associated with decadence probed and strained at the limits imposed by received linguistic and artistic forms through translation. The articles gathered here derive from a broader project to explore decadence and translation, funded by the AHRC during 2018 and 2019. Specifically, contributions relate to an event held at the Collège doctoral européen de Strasbourg within the University of Strasbourg during June 2019. The aim of this event was to bring together scholars from the United Kingdom and across Europe in an attempt to establish a comparative understanding of how decadence and translation are approached in different institutions within different countries and in different languages. Translation activity from the nineteenth century was an object of study at this event; it was also a mode of communication for scholars, who came from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Norway, and Russia.