Introduction

While Dante’s presence in France has been extensively studied, his reception in Francophone Belgium remains largely unexplored. This volume marks the first step in a collective investigation into more than two centuries of translations, adaptations, and reinterpretations of Dante’s work by French-speaking Belgian writers, artists, translators, and scholars. From early 19th-century translations of the Commedia to a lectura Dantis held in a Belgian prisoner-of-war camp in 1940, from the symbolist paintings of Henry de Groux to theatrical and novelistic rewritings across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the volume sheds light on the richness and diversity of a reception that is literary, visual, performative, and bibliographical. Far from claiming exhaustiveness, this collection seeks to open a broader field of inquiry into the many ways Dante has been read, appropriated, and reinvented in Francophone Belgian culture.