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Narrating the North in Contemporary Cultures

Raconter le Nord dans les cultures modernes et contemporaines

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Published on Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Abstract

Français English

Telling stories is inherent to the human beings, they are homo narrans (Fisher, 1984), and thus the storytelling activity participates in the structuring of his imagination. The act of telling therefore makes the apprehension of the surrounding world and of the unknown phenomena possible. While the North often represents an idealized space, it is also a geographical, cultural and historical reality where various influences converge, articulated within narrative practices. The question we wish to address during this conference is that of the specific narrative characteristics of the Nordic space in the modern and contemporary periods, vectors of a multiplication of media supports and discourses. That is to say, the reciprocal influence of a narrative genre or a medium and the images of Nordic places.

Announcement

Français English

Argument

Telling stories is inherent to the human beings, they are homo narrans (Fisher, 1984), and thus the storytelling activity participates in the structuring of his imagination. The act of telling therefore makes the apprehension of the surrounding world and of the unknown phenomena possible. While the North often represents an idealized space, it is also a geographical, cultural and historical reality where various influences converge, articulated within narrative practices.

In this respect, Peter Fjågesund's (2014) and Thomas Mohnike's works on myths (2020) emphasize the link between narrative form and geographical space, paving the way for diachronic and synchronic analyses of representations of place. The first in particular stresses the influence of images associated with the North in the literary genres of the 19th century: the Arctic place within the then children's literature serves as a pretext to praise the merits and test the morals of the characters (Fjågesund, p. 362). Thomas Mohnike, on the other hand, highlights the influences of the imaginary of the North on the perception (geographical, representative, etc.) of this space. This question of the articulation between narrative forms and cultural concept is further outlined in the introduction to the collective work From Nordicity to Borealism (Ballotti et al., 2020). The link between the imagery of the North (Chartier, 2018) and the narrative forms that structure them seems to be a prominent point, even more so in contemporary productions, influenced by the art of storytelling.

Indeed, narrative practice is at the heart of so-called popular cultures (Bruner, 2002). The various media resulting from modern and contemporary cultural forms define the Nordic imagination by their own codes, consequently nourishing the discourses on the North. The emergence of these new media hence allows for a wider diversity of the North representations, due to the different narrative forms they induce. For example, through police investigations, Nordic thrillers challenge the image of the Scandinavian societies, thus changing the perception of the welfare state. Through another medium such as video games, the immersion into the gameplay transports the players into a Nordic universe, in which they become actors of the narration. Cinema, comics, music, etc., each also has its own narrative particularities. Does this mean that each medium, depending on the place it gives to text, image, sound, interaction and so on, transforms the way in which the Nordic space is represented? Does the narrativization of the North then lead to the creation of new discourses on it?

The question we wish to address during this conference is that of the specific narrative characteristics of the Nordic space in the modern and contemporary periods, vectors of a multiplication of media supports and discourses. That is to say, the reciprocal influence of a narrative genre or a medium and the images of Nordic places. Or put another way, how does narrative activity relate to representations of the North through text, image, sound, etc.? What do these narrative forms, understood as a medium of communication, say? Do they make discursive practices on the imaginary of the North evolve? What distinctions are made according to the period in which they are used?

Narrative forms will be understood not as a fixed medium (generic or disciplinary), but as the product of an action of telling.

Indicative themes

(the thematics are proposed in the form of questions in order to open the reflection for future discussions)

Axe 1 : Narrative practice(s) and representations of the North

  • Do the narrative forms in popular culture bring a change? Do and how they influence Nordic storytelling (updating it, renewing it, etc.)?
  • Does the place influence the narrative form? Conversely, does the narrative form influence the idea of the place? Is it context? Is it pretext?
  • Which tropes or stereotypes of the North goes along with which narrative forms? How does the link between narrative forms and the North manifest itself? What does this link reveal?
  • What influences does the genre and the type of media have on the Nordic imagination (especially in terms of the period of creation of the work)?

Axe 2 :  Narrative forms and intermedia / intertextual influence

  • Is there a match with other forms? Other media?
  • Question of genres and typological codes (including within the paratext), intertextuality, inspirations and subsequent forms, etc.

Axe 3 : Narrative forms in their context of emergence 

  • Are the narrative forms linked/triggered by an event/currentness?
  • Are the narrative forms linked to cultural traditions? Does each cultural area/time period have its preferred narrative form for telling the North?
  • How are representations of the North manifesting in popular cultures and conversely, how do these influence these images?

Submission guidelines

Proposals for papers, in French or English, of about 400 words (with title and corpus), accompanied by a short biography, can be sent jointly to the following addresses: v.royaux@unistra.fr, marie-lou.solbach@etu.unistra.fr

before 15/10/2022

Accommodation and meals for participants will be covered by the conference organization, transportation can be covered as well but is subject to further validation.

Remote participation is possible, the conference will be held in a hybrid format and communication will be recorded.

Calendar

  • Submission of proposals : 15/10/2022
  • Notification of acceptance : 30/10/2022
  • Conference date : March, 24-25 (2023)

Organizers

Marie-Lou Solbach and Valentine Royaux

Scientific committee

  • Thomas Mohnike (Université de Strasbourg)
  • Daniel Chartier (Université de Montréal)
  • Fanny Barnabé (Université de Liège)
  • Laurent Di Filippo (Université de Metz)
  • Pierre-Brice Stahl (Sorbonne université)
  • Matthieu Freyheit (Université de Lorraine)
  • Claire McKeown (Université de Lorraine)
  • Virginie Adam (Sorbonne université)
  • Simon Théodore (Université de Strasbourg)
  • Raphaël Jamet (Université de Strasbourg)
  • Aymeric Pantet (Sorbonne Université)

Bibliographie non exhaustive

Adam Virginie, « Fantasy et boréalisme. Smaug, une étude de cas », Études Germaniques, 2018/2 (no 290), p. 255-265.

Ballotti Alessandra, McKeown Claire, Toudoire-Surlapierre Frédérique, « Introduction », De la nordicité au boréalisme, Reims, épure, 2020, p. 9-41.

Barnabé Fanny, Narration et jeu vidéo, pour une exploration des univers fictionnels, Presses Universitaires de Lièges, Liège, 2018.

Boyd Brian. On the origin of stories : evolution, cognition, and fiction. Cambridge, Massachusetts, et, London, England, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.

Briens Sylvain :

« Boréalisme. Le Nord comme espace discursif », Études Germaniques, 2016/2 (no 282), p. 179-188.

« Boréalisme. Pour un atlas sensible du Nord », Études Germaniques, 2018/2 (no 290), p. 151-176.

Bruner Jérôme, Pourquoi racontons-nous des histoires ? Le récit au fondement de la culture et de l’identité individuelle, Paris, Retz, 2002.

Chartier Daniel :

Qu’est-ce que l’imaginaire du Nord ? : principes éthiques, Harstad, Norvège, Canada, Arctic arts summit, Imaginaire | Nord, « Isberg », 2018.

« Au Nord et au large. Représentation du Nord et formes narratives », Joël Bouchard, Daniel Chartier et Amélie Nadeau (éd.), Problématiques de l’imaginaire du Nord en littérature, cinéma et arts visuels, Montréal, Centre de recherche sur le texte et l’imaginaire, 2003, vol. 9, p. 9-25, en ligne : http://oic.uqam.ca/fr/articles/au-nord-et-au-large-representations-du-nord-et-formes-narratives

Cohen Steven, Shiras Linda, Telling Stories. A theoretical analysis of narrative fiction, London, New-York, Routledge, 1988.

Currie Gregory, Narratives and Narrators: A Philosophy of Stories, Oxford, New-York, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Di Filippo Laurent :

« Stereotypes of the North in a Massively Multi-player Role-Playing Game », in Meylan N., Rösli L. (eds.), Old Norse Myths as political Ideologies. Critical Studies in the Appropriation of Medieval Narrative, Turnhout, Brepols, 2020, p. 175-188.

« Les stéréotypes du Nord dans les “géographies imaginées eurocentrées” des productions ludiques », Mundus Fabula – La fabrique des mondes, 2021.

Fisher, Walter R. :

« Narration as a human communication paradigm : The case of public moral argument », Communication Monographs, vol. 51, no 1, March 1984, p. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637758409390180.

« The Narrative Paradigm: In the Beginning », Journal of Communication, vol. 35, no 4, December 1985, p. 74-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1985.tb02974.x.

Fjågesund Peter, « Narratives of the North », The dream of the North, Amsterdam - New York, Rodopi, "Studia Imagologia", 2014, p. 360-375.

Goldberg Harold, Aybabtu : Comment les jeux vidéo ont conquis la pop culture en un demi-siècle, allia, Paris, 2013.

Holmes Dylan, Little Big Stories — Voyage au cœur de la narration, Éditions Pix'n Love, Toulouse, 2015.

Letourneux Matthieu, Fictions à la chaîne. Littératures sérielles et culture médiatique, Paris, Seuil, « Poétique », 2017.

Mohnike Thomas, « Narrating the North. Towards a Theory of Mythemes of Social Knowledge in Cultural Circulation », Deshima, no 14, 2020, p. 9-36.

Niles, John D., Homo Narrans: the poetics and anthropology of oral literature, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1999.

Olsen Jon-Arild, « Film, fiction et narration », Poétique, 2005/1 (no 141), p. 71-91.

Schmid Wolf, Narratology. An introduction, Berlin, New York, De Gruyter, 2010.

Stahl Pierre-Brice

« La représentation du Nord dans Vikings. Entre exploration, imaginaire et altérité », Études Germaniques, 2018/2, no 290, p. 285-294

« Médiévalisme boréal et séries télévisées », Médiévales, 2020/1, no 78, p. 57-68.

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Date(s)

  • Saturday, October 15, 2022

Keywords

  • narration, nord, Scandinavie, pratique narrative

Contact(s)

  • Marie-Lou Solbach
    courriel : marie-lou [dot] solbach [at] etu [dot] unistra [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Marie-Lou Solbach
    courriel : marie-lou [dot] solbach [at] etu [dot] unistra [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Narrating the North in Contemporary Cultures », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, https://calenda.org/1010450

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