Noises and Voices. Languages, Media, the Arts in Nordic Literatures

4th DINO (Diversity in Nordic Literature) Conference, October 6–7, 2016, at the University of Turku, Finland

Sirkkala Campus Area, Kaivokatu 12, Turku

REGISTRATION

Please register and pay online https://konsta.utu.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=88&tap=3253 by 15 August 2016.

 The conference fee is 95 euros including lunches and coffee breaks.

The banquet (on Thursday 6, October) is 45 euros.  

We look forward to seeing you in Turku!

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The Noises and Voices conference wishes to explore multilingualism in the Nordic literary field from different angles, in its texts, literary canons, genres, and national literatures.

The preliminary programme:

Wednesday, October 5

18.00-20.00 Get-Together

 

                      Thursday, October 6

8:30 Registration & information

9:15 Opening of the Conference: Heidi Grönstrand (Janus Lecture Hall, Kaivokatu 12)

9:30 Plenary Lecture: Hassan Blasim (Helsinki/Finland)

10:30 Coffee

11.00 Plenary Lecture: Helena Bodin (Stockholm University, Sweden):

”So let me remain a stranger”. Multilingualism and biscriptalism in the works of Finno-Swedish writer Tito Colliander

12:00-13.00 Lunch

13.00 Workshops

14.30 Coffee

15.00-16.30 Workshops

 

19.00 Conference Dinner

 

                      Friday, October 7

 

9:30 Workshops

11:00 Coffee

11:30 Workshops

13:00-14.00 Lunch

14:00 -15:30 Plenary Lecture: L'usage du mot, or: Noises, voices, languages, media. A reading and conversation with Cia Rinne" (Cia Rinne, Berlin/Sweden, Julia Tidigs (University of Helsinki, Finland & Markus Huss, Södertörn University, Sweden)

 

16:00 Dino Research network meeting (Evaluation and discussion of the next conference)

 

Confirmed key note speakers

Hassan Blasim

Helena Bodin

Cia Rinne

Hassan Blasim is a filmmaker and short story writer. He was born in Baghdad in 1973, but has lived in Finland since 2004. He writes in Arabic but his books have been translated to several languages, including Danish, Finnish, Icelandic and Swedish.

Blasim's debut collection in English, The Madman of Freedom Square was published in 2009. It was longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2010. In 2010, Blasim was described by The Guardian newspaper as “perhaps the greatest writer of Arabic fiction alive”. His second collection, The Iraqi Christ was published in 2013. A selection of stories from both of his two collections was published in the USA in 2014, by Penguin USA, under the title The Corpse Exhibition.

In 2014, The Iraqi Christ was announced the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – the first Arabic title ever to win the award and the first short collection ever to win the award. In 2015 Blasim won the highly esteemed Finland Prize.

Helena Bodin is  Associate Professor in Literature at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University (Sweden) and The Newman Institute (Uppsala, Sweden).

Her research concerns the functions of literature at boundaries such as between languages, nations, arts and media. She has particularly studied modern literature's engagement with the Byzantine Orthodox Christian tradition, from the various perspectives of cultural semiotics, intermedial studies, and translation studies, including aspects of multilingualism.

She has published the monographs Bruken av Bysans [Uses of Byzantium] (2011), including chapters on Hagar Olsson and Tito Collliander, and Ikon och ekfras [Icon and ekphrasis] (2013), including chapters on the poetry of Gunnar Ekelöf. Recently, she has also published articles on Sophie Elkan’s ambiguous dream of the Orient, the childhood narratives and pictures of Ilon Wikland on her exile from Estonia to Sweden, and the issue of Byzantinism from a cultural semiotic perspective, all of them from 2015.

From 2016 she is one of the members of the research program "Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Dynamics in World Literatures”, with a project on representations of Constantinople in literary fin-de-siècle and high modernism, by that time a multiethnic, multireligious and multilingual city with a diversity of writing systems in use.

Cia Rinne (b. 1973) is a transnational poet and artist, born in Sweden to Finnish parents, living in Berlin and with a relationship to many languages. Her writing is intensely multilingual, as well as exposing the material qualities of language – its auditive as well as visual aspects – and takes place on multiple material levels: in the shape of printed poetry collections (zaroum, 2001, notes for soloists, 2009); in digital, online versions (archives zaroum, 2008); as sound collages (sounds for soloists, 2011, together with Sebastian Eskildsen); her live, singular performances, as well as performances in art museums and exhibitions.

Aside from her poetic work, Rinne has written about seven different Roma communities in The Roma Journeys/Die Romareisen (2007/2009, together with Joakim Eskildsen). 2016 sees the publication of Rinne's newest collection of poetry, l’usage du mot (oei editör).

Organizers

The Steering Committee for the research network Diversity in Nordic Literatures (DINO): Satu Gröndahl, Uppsala University and Sámi University College; Heidi Grönstrand, University of Turku; Vuokko Hirvonen, Sámi University College;  Markus Huss, Södertörn University; Olli Löytty, University of Turku; Elisabeth Oxfeldt, University of Oslo

The Multilingualism in Contemporary Literature in Finland project (Kone Foundation),  University of Turku,  monikielisyys.fi

For further information, please contact:

Heidi Grönstrand, heigro[AT]utu.fi

Ralf Kauranen, ralf.kauranen[AT]utu.fi

Olli Löytty, olselo[AT]utu.fi

Kukku Melkas, kukku.melkas[AT]utu.fi

Julia Tidigs, julia.tidigs[AT]helsinki.fi