Conference Organisers: Cecilia Trenter (University of Malmö), Kristina Fjelkestam (University of Stockholm) and Claudia Lindén (University of Södertörn)

The Historical Fictions Research Network (see https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/) aims to create a place for the discussion of all aspects of the construction of the historical narrative. The focus of the conference is the way we construct history, the narratives and fictions people assemble and how. We welcome both academic and practitioner presentations.
The Network addresses a wide variety of disciplines, including Archaeology, Architecture, Literature, Art History, Cartography, Geography, History, Memory Studies, Musicology, Reception Studies, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, Museum Studies, Media Studies, Politics, Re-enactment, Larping, Gaming, Transformative Works, Gender, Race, Queer studies.

For the 2024 conference, HFRN seeks to engage in scholarly discussions on the topic of adaptation in historical fictions.
What happens when well-known historical narratives are adapted for present-day audiences, or are transformed into another genre or medium? Historical fictions induce questions about mediated heritage and collective memories and problematize processes of canonization and appropriations in local as well and global contexts (Cartmell, Hunter and Whelehan 2000). The term “classics” brings up discussions on claims about originals and copies, challenged by the idea of every mediation as one of a kind (Hutcheon 2012). Debates on what constitutes originals, models and adaptations raise questions on authenticity, eye-catching aspects when dealing with historical fiction. A central issue is how the afterlives and appropriations of historical canon and established narratives in history-writing are transformed into new generations of historical fictions.
The term adaptation refers to how art work move from one medium to another. But as Linda Hutcheon states in A Theory of Adaptation, the phenomenon involves more than the journey from novel to film or film to video game or novel to filmscript and explains its complexity as “an acknowledged transposition of a recognizable other work or works; A creative and an interpretive act of appropriation/salvaging; An extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work. Therefore, an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative—a work that is second without being secondary. It is its own palimpsestic thing.” (p. 9)
Thus the combination of adaptation and historical fictions sheds light on epistemological and cultural aspects on form and content, aesthetics and embodiment, values and ethics, authenticity and credibility, traditions and re-thinking and a variety of uses of the past in fiction. The perspectives of adaptation furthermore explore historical fiction as transformative contents in transmedial storytelling, mediated in old as well as new media, exploring how processes of adaptations and media form the content, including how story worlds and franchises are created. (Thomas 2022; Harvey 2015) Yet another angle is how adaptations invite users to interact in transcultural encounters such as fan culture in gaming and social media.

Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

• The past in fictional adaptations
• Heritage, adaptation and historical fiction
• Historical fiction and cultural legacy
• Intermedial storyworlds and historical fiction
• Adapting non-fiction to fiction
• Renewals and traditions in historical fiction
• Popular and ‘classic’ adaptations
• Authenticity, adaptation and historical fiction
• Adaptations between genres
• Franchises, adaptation and historical fictions
• Epistemological aspects on historical fictions and adaptations
• Adaptation, historical fiction and pedagogics

Our Keynote Speakers:
Anna Sofia Rossholm (Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, Stockholm University)
https://www.su.se/english/profiles/aross-1.403165?open-collapse-boxes=research-projects
Ylva Grufstedt (Senior Lecturer at Malmö University) https://mau.se/en/persons/ylva.grufstedt/
Anna Pettersson (film director and artistic director for Strindberg’s Intima Teater)
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Pettersson

Please use the form on our website to register a proposal:
https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/hfrn-conference-2024/
Paper proposals are due 1st September 2023. They should consist of a title, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. The decisions on acceptance will be communicated by 1st November 2023 at the latest.
HFRC 2024 will be an in-person event. The venue is at Malmö University, which is 25 minutes by train from Copenhagen airport. For information about Malmö University, please visit https://mau.se/

Contact
Visit our website (https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/) for more details and regular updates. You can also write to HFRN on historicalfictionsresearch@gmail.com

References:
Deborah Cartmell, IQ Hunter, Heidi Kaye, Imelda Whelehan (2020). Classics in Film and Fiction, Pluto.
Harvey Colin B (2015). Fantastic Transmedia. Narrative, Play and Memory Across Science Fiction and Fantasy Storyworlds, Palgrave Macmillan.
Linda Hutcheon, Siobhan O’Flynn (2012). A Theory of Adaptation, Routledge.
Christian Thomas (ed.) (2022). The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games, Art.