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Thirtieth Anniversary Foreword

John H. E. Paine

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1Thirty years ago this year, the English Department of the Université d’Angers launched the Journal of the Short Story in English: Les cahiers de la nouvelle, inspired by the foresight and energy of our Founding Editor Ben Forkner who saw the need for a journal devoted to criticism of the short story in English and led the effort to make it a reality. The appearance of the first issue was accompanied by a Round Table devoted to “Forms and Evolution of the Short Story,” which featured scholarly papers as well as readings and most lively discussion, with contributions from our invited guest writers Mavis Gallant, Anthony Burgess and John Wain. The results of this meeting were published in the second issue of the Journal. Since then, my colleague at Belmont, Corinne H. Dale (until her retirement a few years ago), and I have served as North American editors and contributors for JSSE, partners in this unusual international endeavor.

2Over the years, there have been many colloquia and symposia at Angers (and one on the Irish Short Story hosted in Nashville by Belmont) devoted to various aspects of the short story. We have ever striven to be transatlantic and transnational in our focus. As our profile has grown, more and more scholars from France, North America, the U.K., and all over the world have seen their work published in JSSE. An evolving team of scholars from Angers has contributed to this effort, led over the years by Ben Forkner, Jeanne Devoize, Emmanuel Vernadakis, and currently Linda Collinge-Germain, unfailingly supported by the Presses de l’Université d’Angers. It is they who have made and who continue to make this venture succeed, fostering diversity and quality in our contributions as well as adapting to budgetary exigencies and the increasingly electronic environment of academic publishing. JSSE continues to explore the ramifications of the short story’s troisième souffle which Philippe Séjourné articulated in that inaugural issue in 1983.

3We are pleased to present here a special issue, JSSE 61, devoted to The Transatlantic Short Story and edited by Héliane Ventura, Professor of Contemporary Literature in English at the University of Toulouse 2 Le Mirail. Presented with freshness and originality as well as with critical acumen, it includes a diverse collection of critical essays which in a variety of ways problematize issues of de- and re-territorialization and the permeability of boundaries in the stories discussed. It also includes two remarkable pieces by Canadian writer Aritha van Herk, a “ficto-critical” essay and a short story, both of which complement the approaches taken in the other essays in striking ways. The editors of JSSE express their gratitude to Professor Ventura for her expert and assiduous editing of this issue.

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References

Bibliographical reference

John H. E. Paine, “Thirtieth Anniversary Foreword”, Journal of the Short Story in English, 61, Spring 2013, 11-12.

Electronic reference

John H. E. Paine, Thirtieth Anniversary ForewordJournal of the Short Story in English [Online], 61 | Autumn 2013, Online since 01 December 2015, connection on 29 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jsse/1367

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About the author

John H. E. Paine

North American Editor, JSSE

By this author

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The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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