NEWS On September 22–23, researchers from Sweden, France, Canada, Finland, and Switzerland gathered at a hybrid symposium to explore and discuss how winter is depicted, and what function it serves, in literature and visual arts.
Professor at the Department of Language Studies
Unit: English
“Climate change is causing many of the aspects we associate with northern winters to change or disappear. This makes it important to explore associations with cold, snow, and ice from different perspectives, and to critically examine stereotypical representations,” says Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, professor of English.
The symposium, entitled The Season of Winter in Literature and Visual Art, was jointly organised by the Department of Language Studies and Imaginaire Nord at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Researchers in literature, arts and visual studies, history, geography, and general literary studies presented topics such as the role of winter as a metaphor, character, symbol, and an alternative world.
Malin Isaksson, Associate Professor and Docent at the Department of Language Studies. Unit: French
ImageHans Karlsson“We hope to develop cooperation between Language Studies and our colleagues in Quebec, and also to expand cooperation to include more universities in Europe”, says Malin Isaksson, docent of French.
