Preface by the Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

As this merciless and traumatizing year draws to a close, I am pleased to welcome Volupté readers, new and old, to this bi-lingual issue on translation. I leave it to our Guest Editors, Matthew Creasy and Stefano Evangelista, to introduce the contributions and affirm the importance of decadence for translation studies, but I would like to acknowledge the work of their Decadence and Translation Network and the series of events in Oxford, London, Strasbourg, Glasgow, and Paris from 2018 to 2020 that brought translators, publishers, poets, curators, and academics together in convivial surroundings to share ideas about the way in which the concept and the practice of translation sit at the heart of British and French decadent literature. The Network events had so many highlights it is difficult to choose one that stands out, but the gathering of scholars in Strasbourg in June 2019 under the hospitable wing of Guy Ducrey is surely one of them. The Network has had considerable impact, inspiring new projects, partnerships, collaborations, and friendships, and it has provided a fruitful space for new thinking about the translational, transnational, and transcultural nature of decadence. It is my fervent hope that despite the petty-minded and destructive Brexit impulse international collaboration at individual and institutional levels continues to flourish and grow.