NOLS 2027 will be the fourth conference organized by the nordic sociology of literature network. The conference will gather researchers from the Nordic countries, or interested in the Nordic countries, from different disciplines that work with sociology of literature broadly defined.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Literature and conflict.”
The programme for NOLS 2027 will be announced as soon as it has been confirmed.
The conference is organized by the research group LITKULT at the Department of Archivistics, Library and Information Science (ABI) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University.
More information will be posted on our web page (uni.oslomet.no).
Keynote speakers
The conference will consist of sessions and keynote lectures.
The keynote speakers will be announced here as soon as they are confirmed.
Gisèle Sapiro
Gisèle Sapiro is Professor of Sociology at the EHESS and Senior Researcher at CNRS. She has been hugely influential in sociology of literature, through works on connections between literature, law and politics in a Bourdieusian vein. Specifically she has studied prizes, translations and power dynamics within the literary field among other things. She’s translated to Nordic languages, for instance with Kan man skilja verket från författaren? (Verbal, 2023).
She has coedited The Routledge Handbook of the History and Sociology of Ideas (2023) and is author of The Sociology of Literature (Stanford UP, 2023) and The French Writer’s War (Duke UP, 2014). She was awarded a Humboldt-Forschungspreis in 2023.
Call for papers
Conflict is a defining feature of both literature and sociology and can hardly be conceived without it. NOLS2027 invites contributions that investigate conflicts and how they unfold in literature, and how conflicts occur in the surroundings of literature and readers.
Literary preparedness
Our present time is characterized by change and conflicts of technological as well as ideological kind. Some of these changes may seem like repetitions of history, such as extremism and intolerance, and may escalate into armed conflict. Other present-day conflicts are, for example, information and communication technology, contributing to progressive social development as well as having potential for damage and spiraling out of control.
Conflict as a topic can encompass research of contemporary literature as well as literary-historical traces. Regarding libraries, an emerging trend is talk of resilience and literary preparedness – which more than hints at major, quick changes and conflicts. How are contemporary and historical conflicts manifested in literature? What role might literature play in escalating or de-escalating political or social conflicts?
Artificial intellignece and reading crisis
Technological changes challenge the production and distribution of literature. The working conditions of writers, illustrators, and translators are profoundly altered by artificial intelligence (AI). What are the consequences of this? To a larger extent, literature and other forms of culture are produced, distributed, and consumed on digital platforms. The platformization is driven by American companies, which in itself creates conflicts.
The conditions for reading have changed dramatically in the last years. Both interest in reading and reading skills, particularly among youth, seem to be in decline. In the Nordic countries, politicians and educators talk about a ‘reading crisis’. What kind of understandings of reading are at play in the public sphere, and who holds power to define what counts as reading and literature today?
Relevant topics
NOLS 2027 invites contributions related to the above-mentioned, and other areas of conflict concerning literature, its market, and its readers. Contributions may be theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical. Projects in their initial stages are also of interest.
Examples of themes and areas include:
- Literature about war and conflict
- Art and quality in confrontation with the market
- Conflicts over reading in a digital society
- Conflict as a precondition for literature Fiction, reality, and ethics in novels and non-fiction
- Literary preparedness
- Book sales and book trends
- The position of children’s literature in the literary institution
- Climate and conflict
- Protest songs and resistance
- Censorship and culture wars: Freedom of expression and literature
- Literature, class, and politics
Practical information
The conference languages are Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and English. Presentations should be a maximum of 20 minutes. Proposals for panels are also welcome.
Abstracts (maximum 300 words) plus a short bio (maximum 150 words) should be sent to:
nols2027@oslomet.no
Deadline for abstracts: 27 January 2027
Contact
For inquiries, please contact us by email: nols2027@oslomet.no.
