Welcome to the conference! The program will be published here early September. The conference is open for everyone interested.
About the conference
In recent decades, we have witnessed two major, and interconnected, "turns" in the humanities: the material and the archival. As the interest in these two turns remains persistent in the field, we invite you to a conference exploring materiality and the archive from the perspective of Nordic literature. A key objective of the conference is how materiality and the archive relate to the concept of literature in general, and to Nordic texts in particular. The legacy of writers in the Nordic countries includes collections of letters, books, maps, and photographs, but also artifacts, buildings, and properties. Some collections have been catalogued, digitized, and have been made available as museums, and are thus subject to research and debate. Others have fallen into oblivion or have simply never been explored or systematized. How do these disparate collections and the practice of literary scholarship relate to each other?
The aim of the conference is to bring the archive, the material, and/or a combination of these into interpretations of Nordic texts. We also welcome theoretical and methodological contributions to how archival and material perspectives can inform literary research. By invoking the archival and the material, a range of questions can be posed/arise: What are the possibilities and limitations that the archive represents in literary research? What is the material in texts and how do concepts about the material contribute to our understanding of texts? What is "the archive" in a literary research context: Are archives collections of documents, texts, or objects, or all of the above? What qualities do digital archives have that material ones do not have, and vice versa? Which opportunities does the archive entail for literary mediation and didactic perspectives?
Program
Download the printable program.
Due to space constraints in Skappels gate 2, the tour in the home of Rolf Jacobsen is reserved for participants with presentations at the conference. The rest of the conference is open to everyone.
Summary
Download the summaries of the conference presentations.
Keynote speaker
Professor of European literature and intellectual history Christian Benne from the University of Copenhagen will be our keynote speaker. Benne has conducted extensive research into modern literary archives, including their historical and intellectual underpinnings, as well as concepts such as collection and materiality within the framework of philosophy of art. Benne’s most recent work is "Ingen indfald bør gå tabt". Det moderne arkiv og den litterære selvrefleksion» in Rasmussen & Kromann (2021) Danske Forfatterarkiver.
Practical information
Campus Hamar is located in the centre of Hamar, 1 hour and 16 minutes from Oslo by train. Trains run every hour between Hamar and Oslo as well as between Hamar and Oslo Airport.
The conference is free of charge.
Contact information
- kamilla.aslaksen@inn.no
- Phone
- +47 62 51 77 51
- kristian.sandberg@inn.no
- Phone
- +47 62 59 79 84