Editorial: AJFS at 50

Abstract

AJFS was founded by Roger Laufer (whose obituary will be found elsewhere in this number) fifty years ago. It rapidly acquired a high academic reputation. Contributors to the journal during its first decade alone included Lloyd Austin, JeanBertrand Barrere, Haskell Block, Germaine Bree, Peter Broome, Ross Chambers, J.M. Cocking, Richard Coe, Alison Fairlie, Jean Giraudoux [sic], James Lawler, Ian McFarlane, W.G. Moore, Henri Peyre, Michel Raimond, Judith Robinson, Richard Sayce and Donald Stone, Jr.Laufer returned to to take up a post at Aix-Marseille, in 1967. Wallace Kirsop, assisted by his wife Joan, served as Editor from 1968 until 2002,1 when I took over. Laufer, in his brief Editorial in the first number of the journal, wrote: [.AJFS] will publish essays in textual explication, articles on literary history and linguistics, but also studies on important aspects of the French social and cultural background. In the late 1960s the journal discontinued its commitment to linguistics, given the creation of specialist journals and associations of applied linguists; but its vigorously eclectic approach to French Studies has remained one of its hallmarks and indeed has become even more pronounced in recent years. While maintaining an essential interest in literary studies, it has consistently reflected and actively engaged with the pluralization of French Studies. Special numbers have explored the pedagogy of cultural studies and everyday cultural practices in French-speaking environments (Teaching Cultures, 33: 2; Popular Culture in Post-War France, 35: 1), and Francophone literature (Voices from North Africa, 45: 2; Francophonie and its Futures, 48: 1), and French cinema (French Cinema, 36: 1; (Retro)projections: French Cinema in the Twenty-first Century, 45: 3; Jacques Rivette, 47: 2). work of professional historians has been published from time to time in the form of proceedings of the George Rude Seminars in French History and Civilization that have been held every two years in Australia or New Zealand since 1978. Also, just as the journal has contained reflections of Wal Kirsop's interest in bibliography and the history of the book, it has reflected my own interest in literary translation and the emerging discipline of translation studies (In Other Words: the Art of Translation, 47: 1; The Practices of Translation, 50: 2).My editorship remains a work in progress. number of guest-edited special numbers has increased from, on average, one per year to two per year. Dossier in the present number represents a model for collective work which I would be happy to see emulated. Proposals for special numbers or Dossiers, from colleagues working anywhere in the world, will be welcome. …