Samuel P. Whitsitt

If there is one point on which Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli’s intellectual focus has never wavered nor waned, that would be James Joyce—the person, his works, the institution. This volume, this “joyceful” for Cicci, attests to that enduring regard. The reach of Rosa Maria’s attention to Joyce, however, has always been broad and welcoming of many different approaches, and if there is something unique about this volume, it is perhaps the range of perspectives that can be found here. Not only are there contributions from well-known Joyceans who have been working in the field of Joyce studies for years, but also contributions from scholars working in fields contiguous to Joyce as well as from those in apparently distant disciplines—such as Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics. It is a gathering that reflects, of course, Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli herself, who has done so much to bring such disparate interests to bear on and attend to Joyce.

This volume comprises contributions on a wide variety of subjects in the fields of literature,language studies, cultural studies, linguistics, and translation studies, interspersed with works of fiction and poetry. Minding the Gap was chosen as a title since the idea of exchange, which perhaps is the general concept which best takes in all of Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli’s concerns, is made possible precisely by a gap, which is that space that does indeed need minding since while it is the space that makes communication and translation possible, it is likewise the space that makes possible the miscommunications, mistranslations, and misunderstandings—the “miss-takes”—of life’s negotiations. The contributions in this volume represent numerous “takes” on how various gaps are minded, negotiated, and/or missed—all “takes” contributed in honour of one who truly understands what is at stake in minding the gap. The contributions in honour of Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli have been gathered together in two volumes: VOLUME I a joyceful of talkatalka VOLUME II Minding the Gap: Studies in Linguistic and Cultural Exchange All four editors are affiliated with the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori dell’Università di Bologna a Forlì (The Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Bologna at Forlì), where RAFFAELLA BACCOLINI teaches American Literature and Gender Studies, DELIA CHIARO teaches English and Humour Studies, CHRIS RUNDLE teaches Translation and Subtitling, and SAM WHISITT teaches Literature, and Language and Culture.