The essays gathered in this special issue pay tribute to Rebecca West and her four decades-long career in Italian Studies. Two award-winning studies plot prime coordinates in our esteemed colleague’s oeuvre and describe the interdisciplinary essays and reflections collected here in her honor. Both her first monograph, Eugenio Montale: Poet on the Edge (West 1981, winner of the Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association), and Gianni Celati: The Craft of Everyday Storytelling (West 2000, winner of the MLA’s Scaglione Manuscript Prize), illustrate an exquisite sensibility to the literary text, whether in poetic or narrative form. The more than one hundred essays, translations, and book chapters that our colleague authored shine light on varied subjects rooting in and touching on broad vectors within Italian literary and cultural studies, including cinema and media studies, gender and sexuality studies, and ethnic and comparative studies. Withal, they compose what the contributors and I call the West Fest. Historically, a Festschrift, sometimes known as a libor amicorum, is a collection of essays written in honor of a scholar following a lengthy, productive career. Very technically, it is meant to be offered to the honoree “in vita,” and often attaches to a significant occasion, sometimes retirement, but also possibly a birthday or anniversary. The first Festschriften, the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory informs us, appear in the mid-nineteenth century and were dedicated to eminent colleagues’ career-long efforts and outputs in philosophy and history. In Italy, a Festschrift tends to be designated as a “Miscellanea commemorativa,” or something close to that. Without question, one could write volumes about the differences between the “Teutonic” and “Italic” denotations, but, to be sure, one of the most useful things about the term “Miscellanea” is the elasticity of concept that it invites (and/or celebrates). In this special issue, elasticity has served as an important precept, since it has allowed colleagues to sculpt briefer than usual essays that could all be accommodated in a single issue.

中文翻译：

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在边缘：影响、相遇、关系和欢乐

本期特刊中收集的文章向丽贝卡·韦斯特 (Rebecca West) 及其在意大利研究领域长达 40 年的职业生涯致敬。两项屡获殊荣的研究绘制了我们尊敬的同事作品中的主要坐标，并描述了此处为纪念她而收集的跨学科论文和反思。她的第一部专着《欧金尼奥·蒙塔莱：边缘诗人》（West 1981，现代语言协会霍华德·R·马拉罗奖获得者）和 Gianni Celati：日常讲故事的技巧（West 2000，MLA 的 Scaglione 手稿获得者）奖），说明了对文学文本的精致感性，无论是诗歌形式还是叙事形式。一百多篇散文、翻译、我们的同事撰写的书籍和章节阐明了植根于意大利文学和文化研究中广泛载体的各种主题，包括电影和媒体研究、性别和性研究，以及种族和比较研究。此外，他们组成了贡献者和我称之为 West Fest 的东西。从历史上看，Festschrift，有时也被称为 libor amicorum，是为纪念一位经历了漫长而富有成效的职业生涯的学者而写的论文集。从技术上讲，它旨在“在生活中”提供给受奖者，并且通常用于重要场合，有时是退休，但也可能是生日或周年纪念日。第一个 Festschriften，牛津文学术语和理论词典告诉我们，出现在十九世纪中叶，并致力于杰出同事在哲学和历史方面的职业生涯的努力和产出。在意大利，Festschrift 往往被指定为“Miscellanea commemorativa”或类似的东西。毫无疑问，人们可以写大量关于“条顿”和“斜体”指称之间的差异的文章，但是，可以肯定的是，“杂项”一词最有用的事情之一是它引起的概念弹性（和/或庆祝）。在这期特刊中，弹性已成为一个重要的准则，因为它允许同事们创作出比平常更简短的文章，这些文章可以全部容纳在一个问题中。毫无疑问，人们可以写大量关于“条顿”和“斜体”指称之间的差异的文章，但是，可以肯定的是，“杂项”一词最有用的事情之一是它引起的概念弹性（和/或庆祝）。在这期特刊中，弹性已成为一个重要的准则，因为它允许同事们创作出比平常更简短的文章，这些文章可以全部容纳在一个问题中。毫无疑问，人们可以写大量关于“条顿”和“斜体”指称之间的差异的文章，但是，可以肯定的是，“杂项”一词最有用的事情之一是它引起的概念弹性（和/或庆祝）。在这期特刊中，弹性已成为一个重要的准则，因为它允许同事们创作出比平常更简短的文章，这些文章可以全部容纳在一个问题中。