Call for Papers:
Ecocritical Perspectives on Nordic Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Second Workshop of the Ecocritical Network for Scandinavian Studies
Bergen, Norway, 25-26 October 2018
Nordic children’s and young adult literature has long reached a worldwide audience, due not least to the popularity of the works of writers such as H. C. Andersen, Astrid Lindgren, Selma Lagerlöf, Tove Jansson and, more recently, Stian Hole and Maria Parr. While nature and the environment play an important role in the works of these authors and in much of Nordic children’s and young adult literature, there is still relatively little ecocritical research on this corpus. As in ecocriticism generally, much of the ecocritical focus within the field of children’s and young adult literature so far has been on Anglophone texts.
This workshop, arranged by the research group Nature in Children’s Literature and Culture (NaChiLitCul) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with the Ecocritical Network for Scandinavian Studies (ENSCAN), is intended as a platform for the sharing and development of ecocritical approaches specifically directed towards Nordic children’s and young adult literature. In this way, the workshop will contribute to a mapping of the particularities of the Nordic texts, while opening up for comparative approaches.
The workshop will take place at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) in Bergen, Norway, on October 25th – 26th 2018.
The proceedings will have a round-table format, with a 15-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute round of comments and discussion for each presenter. The focus is thus not on completed projects but on the development of projects that are underway. Researchers from NaChiLitCul will offer feedback to each presenter.
Various ecocritical theoretical approaches to any environmental aspects of the texts are welcome. Potential Nordic features of interest may include, but are not limited to the following:
- Nordic concepts of wilderness
- Nordic conceptions of nature as formative
- The relationship between characters and landscape
- Nordic environmental topoi
- The winter pastoral / idyll
- Snow and ice
- The seasons: darkness, light
- The Nordic garden
- Nordic coastal areas
- Nordic mountain-scapes
- The rural and urban Nordic
Participants should submit an abstract of maximum 300 words, sketching their project.
Deadline for submission: May 15th 2018
Submit abstract to: Lykke Guanio-Uluru: [email protected].
We encourage all scholars with an interest in ecocriticism and sustainability issues in Nordic children’s and young adult literature to submit an abstract. PhD candidates are welcome as presenters and participants.
Organizers:
Professor Nina Goga, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Associate Professor Lykke Guanio-Uluru, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
See http://blogg.hvl.no/nachilit/
http://www.uta.fi/ltl/en/enscan.html
Reading committee:
Professor Nina Goga, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Associate Professor Lykke Guanio-Uluru, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Associate Professor Reinhard Hennig, University of Agder, Norway
Postdoctoral Researcher Toni Lahtinen, University of Tampere, Finland
For more information on the Ecocritical Network for Scandinavian Studies, please visit our website at http://www.uta.fi/ltl/en/enscan.html .
