Literary Citizenship

25–27 September 2019, National Library of Norway, Oslo

Call for papers

The history of the book is one of global and complex encounters, and the book trade has from its very outset been a transnational enterprise. Today, in part due to digitization, the production, distribution and consumption of books are becoming increasingly international, as books are made accessible worldwide. How does this tangle of transnational and transmedial characteristics inform the way we understand and study books and other printed materials? In what ways do local and global conditions shape what may be termed literary citizenship; how the act of writing, publishing and reading can foster social identity and agency?

The concluding conference of Literary Citizens of the World (LitCit), an international research project financed by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the National Library, will be held in Oslo 25–27 September 2019. The conference is one in a series of events marking the 500th anniversary of printed books in Norway. The first ‘Norwegian’ book was printed in Paris in 1519, in Latin. Today, most ‘Norwegian’ books are printed in the Baltics, and the holdings of the National Library are digitized and made publicly accessible from around the world. The intermediate 500 years of Norwegian book history display similar transnational and transmedial characteristics.

We welcome papers (20 min) that explore aspects of both the local and the transnational nature and impact of the book or other printed materials. Our interests are historical as well as contemporary, and we welcome topics related to Norway, the Nordic countries or beyond, from the 16th century onwards. We also invite reflections on how the history of information packaging and control, (re)distribution, entertainment, reading practices and reading communities can help us to reflect on similar patterns and phenomena shaping society today. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• literary citizenships: reading cultures, readerships, print cultures, the public sphere
• migrating books: translations, adaptations, transactions, trajectories, exchanges
• the book industry: book trade, production, promotion, consumption, distribution
• the materiality of books: print, illustrations, binding, media, digital culture
• the politics of books: contexts, censorship, copyright, usages of books

We are pleased to announce our keynote speakers:

• Roger Chartier, Professor of Early Modern European History and Culture, at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Collège de France in Paris and the University of Pennsylvania
• Ann Thomson, Professor of European Intellectual History at the European University Institute in Florence
• Daniel Bellingradt, Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Book at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Submission guidelines

Deadline for submission of abstracts (200–300 words): 15 February 2019

Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2019

Paper presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Please email abstracts, or any enquiries regarding the programme, to litcit@nb.no

Papers from the conference may be submitted for an edited volume, due to be published in 2020/2021.

For more information about the project and the conference, please visit Literary Citizens of the World. Tracing the Transnational Crossroads of Books in Early Modern Norway.