Working-class literature in the Nordic countries: Children & Class

Invitation to submit papers

According to Anker Gemzøe, the child must be seen as "one of the most important motifs in Scandinavian working-class literature" (2011, 63). The same is emphasised by Magnus Nilsson and Sandra Mischliwietz (2011, 5). Although several studies explore the child as a motif in working-class literature (see for example Mischliwietz 2014, Nyqvist 2018), the child character has still not received collective attention on the field. What place and function does the child have in working-class literature? Can children be key figures when examining the degree or understanding of welfare in a work?

One can also reverse the perspective. Literature that thematises work and class for a child audience has also not received sufficient attention, even though studies show that children's literature can clearly be read from the perspective of working-class literature (see for example Vulovic 2011, Nilsson 2017, Stengrundet & Mathisen 2024). What do we discover when we explore children's literature based on concepts such as class, labor, and workers' literariness? Who and what does the child reader encounter, and which values are conveyed?

The tenth Nordarb-conference thus aims to explore literature from two perspectives: children in working-class literature and working-class literature for children in both historical and contemporary texts.
 

Presentations may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

- Child characters in working-class literature

- Attitudes toward children in working-class literature

- Child perspectives and class in children's and adult literature

- Depictions of class in children's literature

- Representations of labor in children's literature

- Ideologies of children's literature

- Workers' literariness in children's literature

- The precarisized youth in children's and adult literature

- Children and class in literary criticism

- Children and class in various media
 

Title proposals and abstracts (100–300 words) must be submitted by May 1, 2026. Responses will be given in May.

No conference fee! Travel support will be available for presenters with special needs.

Abstracts and questions can be directed to Ingrid Nestås Mathisen (ingrid.nestas.mathisen@hvl.no) or Elin Stengrundet (elin.stengrundet@hvl.no).

Christine Hamm, Ingrid Nestås Mathisen and Elin Stengrundet

--

Gemzøe, Anker 2011. «Barnet i nordisk arbejderlitteratur. Nu och før». I Jonsson, Bibi, Magnus Nilsson, Birthe Sjöberg & Jimmy Vulovic (red.), Från Nexø till Alakoski. Aspekter på nordisk arbetarlitteratur. Lund: Absalon: 163–176.

Nilsson, Magnus 2017. «Skildringen av arbetarklassen i Sven Wernströms Trälarna. 1900–talet». I Andersson, Maria & Elina Drunker (red.), Mångkulturell barn- och ungdomslitteratur. Analyser. Lund: Studentlitteratur: 73–87. 

Nilsson, Magnus og Sandra Mischliwietz .2011. «Barnet, arbetaren, arbetarförfattaren: Om barnet och den kulturella produktionen av klass i 1930-talets svenska arbetarlitteratur». Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap, 41(2), 5-16. https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v41i2.11818 (external link)

Nykvist, Karin 2018. «The Small People in the Big Picture. Children in Swedish Working-Class Novels of the 1930s». I Aasgaard, Reidar, Marcia Bunge & Merethe Roos (red.), Nordic Childhoods 1700–1960. From Folk Beliefs to Pippi Longstocking. New York: Routledge: 303–317.

Mischliwietz, Sandra 2014. «’Finns det inga arbetare?’ Klass, genus och barndom i den aktuella svenska arbetarlitteraturen». I Jonsson, Bibi, Magnus Nilsson, Birthe Sjöberg & Jimmy Vulovic (red.), Från Bruket til Yarden. Nordiska perspektiv på arbetarlitteratur. Lund: Absalon: 191–204. 

Stengrundet, Elin og Ingrid Nestås Mathisen. 2024. «’De flinkeste fagfolka i verden’: Bildeboken Hull & Sønn (2004) som arbeiderlitteratur». I Agrell, Beata, Anna Forssberg & Magnus Nilsson (red.), Arbetarlitteratur bortom kanon: Nordiska perspektiv. Malmö: Malmö University Press: 307-325. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1947483/FULLTEXT01.pdf (external link)

Vulovic, Jimmy 2011. «Kommunistiska berättelser för barn. Materialism kollektivism och internationalism i Barntidningen 1919–1923». I Jonsson, Bibi, Magnus Nilsson, Birthe Sjöberg & Jimmy Vulovic (red.), Från Nexø till Alakoski. Aspekter på nordisk arbetarlitteratur. Lund: Absalon: 55–66.