Literature and Narrativity is multidisciplinary and multilingual, with researchers working on English, French, German, Spanish, and Scandinavian literature. The group has a broad understanding of “narrativity” as related to both how narratives work, and how stories shape and make sense of the self and the world. “Literature” refers not only to contemporary and historical novels, but poetry, short stories, narrative non-fiction, life-writing, film and other audio-visual forms, graphic novels, and children’s and young adult literature. The group works closely with the Literature in Context hub within the research programme ELLA (Education, Literature and Language). Previous work has covered narratives of identity, gender, travel, migration, and intercultural communication, and current projects are orientated towards the theme of ‘literature in times of crisis’, including “Klassereise”: narratives of class mobility, and “Of Ruin and Regeneration: Narratives of Hope and Despair”, with sections on the self, utopia/dystopia, and the environment.
Some areas members of the group work with include:
- Narrative and perspectivity
- Affect/emotions and cognition
- Storying the Anthropocene
- Illness narratives
- Migration and post-migration narratives
- Feminist, gender and queer theories
- Memory, history, trauma
- Multimodality and materiality
- Literature and terrorism
- Literary reading and writing in the digital age
- AI and literature
The group has published numerous anthologies (2016, 2017, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2025) and has several ongoing publication projects to be finalized in 2026.
We are interested in collaborations and project ideas, both with regard to potential publications as well as opportunities to develop (individual and joint) proposals for external funding.