Latest news

International symposium in honour of Guðbergur Bergsson, Saturday June 1st, 2013

An international symposium in honour of one of Iceland‘s greatest authors, Guðbergur Bergsson, will be held at the University of Iceland on Saturday, June 1st.

An impressive group of scholars, translators and writers, both from Iceland and abroad, will cast light on Bergsson‘s work in an international context.  Among the topics are the language and translation of world literature, the translations of Bergsson‘s work into other languages, his aesthetics and the dialogue between his work and those of other writers in Iceland and elsewhere. Guests will be invited on a journey into the world of literature and the immensely rich work of Bergsson.

Keynote speakers include writer Colm Tóibín, writer and translator Luísa Costa Gomes, translators Eric Boury, Enrique Bernárdez and Massimo Rizzante, and the visual artist and translator Hans Brückner.

Former President of Iceland, Madame Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, will open the symposium.

The symposium will take place in the University of Iceland Main Hall on Saturday June 1st, from 09:45 to 16:30. Admission is free and all are welcome.

The symposium is co-organized by The Vigdis Finnbogadottir Institute of Foreign Languages at the University of Iceland, The Department of Icelandic Language & Literature at the University of Manitoba, The Institute of Research in Literature and Visual Arts at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik UNESCO City of Literature, Centre for Research in the Humanities at the University of Iceland, Icelandic Ministry of Culture and Education, Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Forlagið, The Town of Grindavík and Reykjavík Art Festival.

Programme and further information are available on the conference website.

Lecture on Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood

María Antonia Mezquita Fernández, Assistant Professor at the University of Valladolid, Spain, will give a lecture on Thursday April 9th at 12:00 in room 106 in Oddi at the University of Iceland.

The lecture is entitled „Feminism and Identity Throughout the Works of the Canadian Writers Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood : An Ecocritical Approach“.

Admission is free and all are welcome.

Call for Papers for a Festschrift in honour of Pétur Knútsson

On the occasion of the retirement of Pétur Knútsson from the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Literature and Linguistics, and in recognition of his significant contributions to both research and teaching, his colleagues call for contributions to a Festschrift in his honour.

The volume will comprise up to 15 papers, subject to peer review, with preference given to contributions in areas of special interest to Pétur (though proposals in other disciplines are welcome):

• linguistics, especially phonetics, phonology, prosody, dialects and language history;
• translation, phenomenology, hermeneutics;
• language teaching, especially pronunciation.

Papers should be 5-6,000 words in length and formatted according to the attached style guide. The attached template is pre-set-up with styles in accordance with our guide. Please send contributions to Matthew Whelpton (whelpton@hi.is) by Monday 27th May 2013. Submissions are welcome in both Icelandic and English.

[This publication is subject to adequate funding.]