Call for Papers
Lund University 12–14 June 2025
The 23rd international Strindberg Conference will be held in Lund on 12–14 June 2025. The conference is jointly organized by the Centre for Scandinavian Studies at the Centre for Language and Literature, Lund University, The Strindberg Society in Stockholm and the Strindberg Association in Lund.
The theme of the conference is "Strindberg and nature". Despite the fact that Strindberg grew up in a big city and spent long periods in European metropolises, nature played an absolutely central role in his writing. Several of his best-known prose works contain magnificent descriptions of the Stockholm archipelago, and much of his poetry and drama is based on motifs or symbols taken from nature. Likewise, he liked to depict landscapes of various kinds in his innovative painting. Also in terms of his aesthetic, philosophical and scientific approach, nature was an important source of inspiration for Strindberg. It is against the background of his love of nature that one must understand not only his attraction to naturalism, primitivism and agrarian socialism, but also his interest in botany and his reckless speculations on biology, physics and chemistry.
The main purpose of the conference is to shed light on Strindberg's multifaceted relationship with nature, but since it takes place in Lund, we will also pay attention to Strindberg's stay in the city where he wrote Inferno and began a new phase in his life and his poetry.
Suggestions for the approach of the conference presentations:
- Descriptions of nature in Strindberg's prose, poetry and drama
- Depictions of nature in Strindberg's painting
- Strindberg and naturalism
- Strindberg and the natural sciences
- Strindberg and primitivism
- Strindberg and human nature
- Ecocritical readings of Strindberg
- Strindberg and Lund
We welcome you to submit abstracts (approximately 150 words) for papers (20 minutes) and proposals (approximately 250 words) for panels (60 minutes) by January 17, 2025, to Strindberg2025@litt.lu.se.
We look forward to welcoming you to Lund in June next year!
