Call for papers: International conference on Selma Lagerlöf

Date: February 10th and 11th, 2022

Location: Sorbonne University, Paris

Selma Lagerlöf’s work is currently attracting renewed interest in Sweden and internationally. During her lifetime, Lagerlöf was translated into some 40 languages, and new translations are still being published. Thanks to the support of the Swedish Academy, the Swedish Institute and the REIGENN Host Team (Sorbonne University), and in collaboration with the Selma Lagerlöf Society (Selma Lagerlöf-sällskapet), Sorbonne University is organizing a conference in Paris in February 2022 around the work of Selma Lagerlöf.

The objectives of the conference are as follows:

• to spread current knowledge and research on Selma Lagerlöf both in Sweden and internationally;

• to attract the interest of French-speaking researchers, translators and publishers to Lagerlöf's work;

• and to make use of French-speaking research and French translations of her work.

Speakers will be invited to reflect particularly on the following points:

• writing biography in different cultural contexts

• literary historiography and new epistemological approaches

• the modalities of the study of work by Selma Lagerlöf and new critical approaches

• the translations and distribution of works by Selma Lagerlöf in French

Contributions in French or Swedish, from all disciplines, may offer contextualized case studies
or theoretical reflections. 

Duration of presentations: 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

The main speakers will be:

- Jenny Bergenmar, professor of Swedish literature and researcher member of the Swedish Women’s Writing on Export: Tracing Transnational Reception in the Nineteenth Century research team).
- Lena Carlsson, editor of the Lagerlöf Letters and author of two children's books and a novel on Lagerlöf.
- Anna Nordlund, lecturer in Swedish literature and author of the biography Selma Lagerlöf - Sveriges modernaste kvinna (2018).
- Anna-Karin Palm, novelist and author of the biography on Lagerlöf Jag vill sätta världen i rörelse (2019).
- Holger Wolandt, author of the biography Selma Lagerlöf. Värmland und die Welt (2015). Translator from Lagerlöf into German.

Speech proposals (a presentation of approximately 200 words, the title and a short bibliographic notice) must be sent before September 30, 2021 to the following addresses:
anna.nordlund@edu.uu.se, maria.demeux @ gmail.com and anna.forssberg@kau.se.
 

Organizers:
Maria Hansson (Sorbonne University)
Anna Forssberg (Karlstad universitet)
Anna Nordlund (Uppsala universitet)
Sylvain Briens (Sorbonne University)