PROGRAM
International Conference
WHAT MAKES LITERATURE? Redefining Realism, Poetics, and Belonging
16–18 September 2026
Venue: Raiņa bulvāris 19, Riga, Latvia
Organizer: Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
View and download the conference program
DAY 1 — WEDNESDAY, 16 SEPTEMBER 2026
08:45–09:30 — Registration
09:30–09:50 — Opening Ceremony
10:00–11:00 — Keynote 1
Riikka Rossi — University of Helsinki, Finland
Realism, Naturalism, and Emotions: Perspectives from Nordic Literature
Chair: Eva Eglāja-Kristsone
11:00–11:30 — Coffee Break
11:30–12:50 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Helga Mitterbauer
11:30 Daniel Arrieta Domínguez — Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
The Timechain Rupture: Bitcoin, Critical Posthumanism, and the Dislocation of Belonging in 21 Futures
11:55 Taisija Oral — Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
The Birth of Lithuanian Pop Novel Out of the Spirit of 90s: The Expanding World of Pietinia kronikas
12:20 Mariia Dorogova — Tallinn University
The Border State in Transition: Liminal Identities in Estonian and Ukrainian Prose Fiction of 1990s and 2000s
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: Dirk Göttsche
11:30 Fredrik Renard — University of Uppsala
The Novel as Space of Appearance: Reading the Novel With and Against Arendt
11:55 András Lempel — University of Stuttgart
The Misunderstood Realism — Dissecting the Layers of a Fundamental Concept in Lukács’s Aesthetics
12:20 Anna Schubertová — Charles University
The Invisible Form of the Realist Novel
12:50–14:10 — Lunch Break
14:10–15:50 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Daniel Arrieta Domínguez
14:10 Eliisa Puudersell-Tolk — University of Tartu
Shame in Baltic and Central Eastern European Transition Literature
14:35 Kati Kanto — University of Oulu
Spirituality and the Growth of the Young Person in Finnish Young Adult Literature
15:00 Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Recovering of Places: The Change of Poetics in Latvian Exile Poetry (Some Examples)
15:25 Michaele Weissman — Independent scholar and writer
Memoir through the Lens of Memory Studies
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: Svend Erik Larsen
14:10 Artis Ostups — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Narrating the Holocaust by Bullets: Sigitas Parulskis, Māris Bērziņš, and Realism
14:35 Māra Rubene — University of Latvia
Bergson’s Traces in Socialist Realism: Milda Paļēviča’s Theoretical Palimpsest
15:00 Dace Bula — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Literature and Skeleton: Eco-Realism of Extinction Narratives
15:25 Anne Fastrup — University of Copenhagen
Realism and the Fantasy of “Nature’s Free Gifts”: Agrarian Labour and Regimes of Belonging in Nineteenth-Century Denmark
15:50–16:20 — Coffee Break
16:20–17:35 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Jeanne E. Glesener
16:20 Christopher Meid — Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Reflections of Military Occupation in National Socialist Travel Literature
16:45 Meinolf Schumacher — University of Bielefeld
Belonging after Defeat I. The Literary Afterlife of the Wehrmacht in Heinrich Böll
17:10 Matthias Buschmeier — University of Bielefeld
Belonging after Defeat II. The Literary Afterlife of the Wehrmacht in Heinz G. Konsalik
Room B — Stream 4: Digital Literature and Reading Cultures
Chair: Kirsten von Hagen
16:20 Svend Erik Larsen — Aarhus University
Belonging in Literature and Digital Media
16:45 Antonina Lorek — Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow
“A mathematical writer”: the practice of close reading and artistic experiment within the realm of Stanislawa Przybyszewska’s literary work
17:10 Madara Stāde — University of Latvia
Representation and Reinterpretation of Literature in Video Games: the Baltic Context
DAY 2 — THURSDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2026
09:00–10:00 — Keynote 2
Rosa Mucignat — King's College London, United Kingdom
Mother Tongues and Languages of the People: Realism in “Minor” Languages
Chair: Jānis Oga
10:00–10:30 — Coffee Break
10:30–12:10 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Aistė Kučinskienė
10:30 Ilona Gorņeva — University of Latvia
The Moment by Magda Szabó in the Context of Ancient Literary Tradition
10:55 Andjela Bisevac — University of Wollongong in Dubai
The Architecture of Destruction: Realism, Surface, and Belonging in Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
11:20 Agita Misāne — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Place, Faith and Men: Aglona in Latvian Literature
11:45 Ingus Barovskis — University of Latvia
Transformations of Poetics: From the Soviet Canon to Folkloric Symbols. The Example of Vilma Daune
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: András Lempel
10:30 Jeanne E. Glesener — University of Luxembourg
Languages of Realism: Multilingualism and Narrative Strategies in Luxembourgish Novels since 1980
10:55 Vildan Kansın Ökruca — İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University
Entangled Realisms in Contemporary Fiction
11:20 Ilze Jansone — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
“Come on, that’s not how things are”: Interpretation of Svens Kuzmins’ Brīvībene
11:45 Zita Kārkla — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Memory, Matter, and the Poetics of Care: Affective Realism in Andra Manfelde’s Kosmonautu iela
12:10–13:20 — Lunch Break
13:20–15:00 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Jagoda Wierzejska
13:20 Dina Bite — Riga Stradiņš University
Fragile Solidarities: Sisterhood and Identity Formation in Regīna Ezera’s Nodevība
13:45 Sandra Meškova — Daugavpils University
Representation of Places of Memory in Anita Liepa’s and Māra Zālīte’s Life Writing
14:10 Maksymilian Odrzywołek — University of Warsaw
The Tale of Two Poets or The Tale of Two Scholars?
14:35 Viktorija Šeina — Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Censorship of Lithuanian Literary Classics during the Stalinist Period
Room B — Stream 2: Poetics and Forms
Chair: Madara Stāde
13:20 Helga Mitterbauer — Université libre de Bruxelles
Soundscapes of Trauma and Deployment: Cross-Border Poetics in the Alpine Project
13:45 Kitija Balcare — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Negotiating Care: Ecodramaturgy in Contemporary Chamber Operas Monstera Deliciosa and Cantus Firmus
14:10 Elīza Paula Graudiņa — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Literature on Stage: Adaptations in Latvian and Lithuanian Theatre (2025/2026)
14:35 Rebecca Gigli — Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Reconfigurations of Literary Forms and Identities in Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory
15:00–15:30 — Coffee Break
15:30–16:45 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Dace Bula
15:30 Jagoda Wierzejska — University of Warsaw
A “New Pole” by the Seaside: Belonging and Modernity in the Discourses of “Maritime Poland”
15:55 Nikolay Zhelev — Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
The Sea in the Bulgarian Revival. The Stories of the Hajduk Valchan Voivode
16:20 Alexander Waszynski — Greifswald University
Fontane and The Baltic: The Dynamics of Non-Belonging in the 19th-Century Maritime Novel
Room B — Stream 4: Digital Literature and Reading Cultures
Chair: Anda Baklāne
15:30 Kirsten von Hagen — Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen
Footnotes, Scientific Discourse, Publishing Practices: Encyclopaedic Writing as a Marker of Reality
15:55 Paula Lāce — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Taking Literature Outside: Literatura.lv, Literary Routes, and Public Humanities
16:20 Anete Saulīte-Stačkune — National Library of Latvia
Digitalizing the Tangible Experience: Screen-Mediated Practices in the Contemporary Latvian Publishing Industry
DAY 3 — FRIDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2026
09:00–10:00 — Keynote 3
Dirk Göttsche — University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Realism and the Politics of Memory: Competing Narratives of the Anti-Napoleonic Wars in German Literature, 1813–2013
Chair: Benedikts Kalnačs
10:00–10:30 — Coffee Break
10:30–12:10 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Andjela Bisevac
10:30 Carolina Portela / Pedro Dorneles da Silva Filho / Fábio R. Penna — Federal University of Maranhão
Animist Realism and Amefricanity: An Anticolonial Reading of Afro–Latin American Literatures
10:55 Veronika Simanova — University of Nitra
Interliterary Contact and the Transformation of Poetics in Hispanic American Migrant Literature
11:20 Claudia Gioia — Södertörn University
Socialist Realism in Sweden: Arbetarlitteratur in Dialogue with Soviet Literature
11:45 Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Everyday Stalinism in Latvian Short Prose of the 1920s–1930s USSR
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: Rosa Mucignat
10:30 Pauls Daija — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Proto-realism in Latvian Literature
10:55 Maris Saagpakk — Tallinn University
On the Estonian Reception of Theodor Hermann Pantenius’ Baltic Realism
11:20 Ginta Pērle-Sīle — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
The Influence of Traditional Cultural Conceptions on Depictions of the Countryside and the City
11:45 Dalia Pauliukevičiūtė — Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Realism and Melodrama in Lithuanian Public Discourse after the Revolution of 1905
12:10–13:10 — Lunch Break
13:10–14:50 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 3: Belonging and Identity
Chair: Viktorija Šeina
13:10 Yordan Lyutskanov — Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Allegorisation and New Realism as Means of Self-Inclusion
13:35 Jurga Jonutytė — Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Narrative Expression of Normativity Loss: Atypical Plots of the Gulag Memoirs
14:00 Jānis Oga — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Authorial Activism and Cultural Belonging in Late Soviet Latvian Periodicals (1982–1985)
14:25 Elvis Friks — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
The Inner Stranger: Search for Home in Postcolonial Latvia in Aina Zemdega’s Heritage
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: Fredrik Renard
13:10 Anda Baklāne — National Library of Latvia
Mapping Realism: Rural and Urban Space in Latvian Novels, 1879–1940
13:35 Signe Leth Gammelgaard — University of Gothenburg
Realist Decadences in the Danish Fin de Siècle: The Novels of Herman Bang
14:00 Mirjam Hinrikus — Tallinn University
Realist and Antirealist Mimesis in A. H. Tammsaare’s Decadent Modernism
14:25 Aistė Kučinskienė — Vilnius University
Realist Aesthetics in the Prose of Female Authors in Lithuanian Interwar Literature
15:00–15:15 — Short Break
15:15–16:55 — Parallel Sessions
Room A — Stream 2: Poetics and Forms
Chair: Eliisa Puudersell-Tolk
15:15 Jaanus Valk — Under and Tuglas Literature Institute, Estonian Academy of Sciences
A Curious Case of Syllabic Verses in Jaan Kaplinski’s Poetry
15:40 Akvilė Rėklaitytė — Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Searching for Reality Beyond Socialist Realism: Reading Stasys Jonauskas
16:05 Māra Grudule — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
Stream of Consciousness in a World Dominated by Socialist Realism
Room B — Stream 1: Mapping Realism
Chair: Maris Saagpakk
15:15 Kristiāna Ābele — Institute of Art History, Art Academy of Latvia
Unveiling the Sensuous and Psychological Reality of Art and Life: Young Latvian Painters as New Literary Characters in the late 1890s
15:40 Mārtiņš Mintaurs — National Library of Latvia
Belonging to Realism: Writers Shaping the Latvian National Identity, 1900–1914
16:05 Benedikts Kalnačs — Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia
The Ideology and Aesthetics of Fin-de-siècle Latvian Literary Realism
16:30–17:15 — Afterwords and Closing Reception
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Book of Abstracts
The conference Book of Abstracts is available online. It includes the abstracts of the keynote lectures and paper presentations.
View and download the Book of Abstracts
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The conference is organised within the framework of two research projects implemented by the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia:
“Latvian Literature as Belonging: Personalities, Poetics, and the Public Sphere” (LITBEL), Project No. VPP-IZM-Letonika-2025/1-0006, which explores Latvian literature as a cultural, social, and public resource, with particular attention to poetics, personalities, canon formation, the public sphere, reading, and digital environments.
“Reclaiming Latvian Realism: Literary Innovation as Identity Quest” (REALT), Project No. lzp-2024/1-0341, which re-examines Latvian literary realism in relation to aesthetic innovation, identity formation, postcolonial and post-Soviet experience, and social transformation.
Conference Committee
Eva Eglāja-Kristsone · Benedikts Kalnačs · Jānis Oga · Anda Baklāne (National Library of Latvia) · Jeanne E. Glesener (University of Luxembourg) · Zanda Gūtmane (Riga Technical University) · Petra James (Université libre de Bruxelles) · Mindaugas Kvietkauskas (Vilnius University) · Maris Saagpakk (Tallinn University).
