Call for paper
In recent years, new technologies and booming formats such as audiobooks and podcasts have brought new attention to sound in/of literature and books. One may even argue that we experience a resurgence of aural and oral literary culture. That may in itself seem contradictory: The word “literature” refers to written text; something essentially different from speech or oral storytelling; yet, literature has a long history of connections to sound and orality; including texts based on oral culture, traditions of reading aloud and performance of literary works; works which relate to – describe, thematize and/or incorporate – music, songs and sound, as well as traditions of working with rhythm and sound in poetry (or prose). Today, books and literary texts are increasingly distributed and circulated in "sound contexts" , on audio-centered platforms or social media. This not only results in new modes of consuming literature through sound but also, potentially, in new (old) categories of texts or writing styles, and it leads to new social, medial and material contexts for reading and literary experience. To understand, establish an interdisciplinary dialogue on, these ongoing and historical developments and phenomena, we invite contributions for a conference on sound and, in or of literature, encouraging contributions from a variety of disciplines such as sound studies, literary studies, musicology, intermedial studies, media studies, publishing studies, sociology of literature and arts, and book studies.
Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):
- Audiobooks; audio narratives, born-audio fiction and audio drama
- Literary/fiction podcasts and podcasts on literature
- Rhythm and sound in/of literature
- Voice and dialect in literature; audiobook narration and narrators
- Reading aloud and oral performance of poetry and prose; shared reading
- Uses of audiobooks; reading-by-listening and literary experiences through sound
- Close listening and methodologies for studying audio texts/reading-by-listening
- Audiobook publishing and distribution - Audiobooks and genre (e.g. romance, erotica, crime fiction, memoir…
- Audiobook communities and social dimensions of audiobook/audio fiction uses
- Audiobook/audio fiction platforms; platformization of sound and book cultures
- Literature and/on music; music and songs in literary works
- Children’s (and YA) audiobooks and audio culture
- Audiobooks/reading-by-listening in schools and education
- AI and new (or old) technologies in relation to audiobooks and literary culture
- Enhanced audiobooks and literary audio experiments
We invite proposal for individual papers (20 minutes) or panels (1 hour, 3-5 presenters). Proposals should include an abstract (200-300 words for individual papers; 500 words for panels) and bios (50-100 words) of all presenters, and should be sent to: Sara Tanderup Linkis: sara.tanderup_linkiskultur.luse; Julia Pennlert: julia.pennlerthbse
Deadline for abstracts: April 24, 2026. Note of acceptance by May 15, 2026.
The conference will be funded mainly by the project “Between Sound and Text: Production, Content and Experiences of Multimodal Audio Literature” (Swedish Research Council, 2024-2026).