From the Editor

In his introduction to La Conversion de l’Art (Carnets Nord, 2008), René Girard directs us to his important article on the future of the novel, written in the midst of that intense discussion during the fifties. I am grateful to René Girard and the editors of French Review for permission to reprint this article in translation and to Robert Doran for this translation, which comes from his work editing the valuable collection of Girard’s essays Mimesis and Theory: Essays on Literature and Criticism, 1953–2005 (Stanford University Press, 2005).

We have again a heartening mix of senior and junior scholars across a wide range of disciplines. On the front cover of this issue we have William Blake, and in the section reserved for creative work we have a clip from Els Launspach’s novel Messire (L. J. Veen, 2008) on Richard III, the English king who best exemplifies at a most turbulent period how to win and lose at mimetic rivalry.

I would like to thank COV&R, the Michigan State University English Department, the College of Arts and Letters, and the Offices of the Provost and Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies for continued support of the editing and publishing of Contagion as well as Imitatio for its support of our series of books. As Editor, I am especially dependent on the Editorial Board and many others who have willingly read submissions contributed from a remarkable variety of disciplines. I am grateful for their service.