Call for Papers 9th European Narratology Network Conference: Narrative and Authority Tampere University Main Building, Finland, 17–19 June, 2027
PhD workshops on June 16, registration opens in October 2026.
The 9th biennial conference of the European Narratology Network (ENN) brings together literary and narrative scholars to discuss and debate the theme of narrative and authority.
The ways in which literary authors claim authority over their text have changed throughout literary history (see Gibbons & King 2023 Reading the Contemporary Author). Today, literary authorship finds itself enmeshed in a broad field of narrative interests and contests, and a whole range of claims to narrative authority. Narrative authority refers to the teller’s power and capability to control narrative resources and situations (de Fina & Georgakopoulou 2012 Analyzing Narrative). It determines who gets to tell their story or the stories of others, and more broadly, who can “control the narrative”, as the political catchphrase has it. In contemporary culture, the public face of literary authorship is more and more defined by narrative authority, which puts authors on a par with influencers, political actors, and storytellers in other societal areas and across media.
As the balance of narrative and authority is shifting, we invite the participants of the conference to contribute to the reframing of these concepts and their analytical and practical scope. What – and who – is an author? How have narrative authority and literary authorship evolved over time? How can theory and methods adapt to the changing forms of authorship and narrative authority? Who gets to tell their own or another’s story? What forms of authority shape the literary field, or the public sphere? How do digital narrative environments and machine-generated storytelling shape narrative authority? How is interpretive authority established and distributed? How are political and narrative authority intertwined?
The ENN, Tampere University, Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies and the consortium project Authors of the Story Economy: Narrative and Digital Capital in the 21st-Century Literary Field welcome colleagues from Europe and beyond to propose individual presentations or themed panels with 3–4 speakers.
Welcomed topics include but are not limited to:
- authorship in literature and other media
- theoretical debates on authorial and narrative agency and control
- postcolonial, intersectional, as well as critical race and whiteness studies approaches to narrative authority
- uneven distribution of authority in the literary field and world literature
- narrative omniscience
- co-authorship, collective forms of narration
- narrative rhetoric and the rhetorical theory of narrative
- narrative authority across genres, platforms and contexts
- political storytelling, leadership, and democracy
- interpretive authority
- mindreading, mind attribution and narrative authority
- digital narrative environments, AI storytelling, the digital literary sphere
- authority through small stories and narrative positioning
- master and counter-narratives
- epistemological and moral authority in and of narratives
- historical and changing forms of narrative, literary, and interpretive authority
- practice of epistemic control in e.g. political, ideological, and activist spheres
- narrative warfare
- evaluative authority in the literary field and in different narrative environments
The call is intended for researchers at all career stages. We welcome contributions from narrative and literary studies and narratology, as well as interdisciplinary contributions.
Please submit your individual (max 300 words) or panel (max 700 words) proposals accompanied by 100-word speaker bios by October 31, 2026 by using the submission form. We accept only one submission per speaker. Acceptances and more information on practicalities will be sent out by the end of 2026.
Keynote speakers
Professor Torbjörn Forslid (Lund University)
Professor Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo)
Registration fees
- Conference fee EUR 170 (faculty) / EUR 100 (student and contingent faculty)
- Viikinsaari cruise & dinner EUR 85 (faculty) / EUR 40 (student and contingent faculty)
About venue and activities
Tampere is 2 hours from the Helsinki airport by train. The conference will take place in the Main Building of Tampere University’s City Centre Campus, located very close to the railway station, with several accommodation options nearby in a range of price categories. NB! ENN9 takes place on-site only. The social events include a lake cruise to Viikinsaari island – dinner, sauna & swim!