International conference at Basel University, May 14-15, 2027
Deadline: August 14, 2026
Why do literary genres matter today? How are genres constituted today? How can using literary genre as an analytical lens enhance our understanding of our contemporary historical moment? To investigate how genre fiction, or fiction that is written to conform to the pre-existing conventions of a popular genre, merges its market identity with broader questions of critical and cultural concern, the team of the research project Anglo Genres for Atlantic Futures at the University of Basel invites submissions for the conference “Genres and Genre Fiction in the Twenty-First Century,” to be held at the University of Basel, Switzerland on May 14-15, 2027. The “Anglo Genres” team works mainly on Anglophone eco-fictions, campus novels, and science fictions, but contributions on other types of contemporary genre fictions are welcome too, provided that they engage substantially with the question of genre and/or the forms and functions of genre fiction today. The main focus of the conference will be on Anglophone fictions, but comparativist contributions are welcome too.
The category of genre has always been fiercely contested by scholars; mobilized in vastly different ways by critics, publishers, readers, and writers; and articulated differently across cultural, linguistic, and historical contexts. In recent decades, some types of genre fiction have received new kinds of acclaim as established writers have drawn on them: from Michael Chabon (comics) to Cormac McCarthy (Western), Margaret Atwood (science fiction, the gothic), and Colson Whitehead (horror). Our keynote speaker Jeremy Rosen (University of Utah) has theorized the notion of the ‘genre turn’ to think about recent high-cultural uses of genre fictions. And of course, genre fiction continues to thrive beyond such forms of ennoblement. These developments in the contemporary literary field (Bourdieu) invite us to return, in new ways, to old questions around the popular, commercial culture, and cultural capital.
This conference will bring together speakers working on a diverse set of genres to define the cutting edge of genre theory in literary criticism. We invite papers that take up genre as an object of study, a problem, or a set of affordances (to use Caroline Levine’s term), as well as papers that examine the many forms of genre fiction that are often defined in distinction to mainstream or high literature (e.g., eco-fiction, campus novel, science fiction, romance, horror). We are looking for a wide variety of approaches to genre, as long as they engage with genre fiction written since 2000. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- The ‘genre turn’ of established writers
- Shifts in the positioning of genre fictions in the literary field
- Intersections and hybridizations of genres
- Contemporary redefinitions of older genres
- Sociological approaches to genre
- The relationship between genre and canon; genre after the canon wars
- Genre and judgements of taste; high and low genres
- The periodization of genres, or genre as an alternative to periodization for categorizing literature
- Genre, marketing, and advertising
- The influence of social media on genres (e.g. BookTok, BookTube)
- What makes a genre “contemporary?”
- Emergent/newly defined genres
- Problematizing genre categorization and its limitations
We are interested both in papers about the concept of genre in general, as well as papers about one or several individual genres.
To apply, please send a proposed presentation title, a 200-250 word abstract, and a 50-100 word bio to Anglo-genres-engsem@unibas.ch no later than Friday, August 14, 2026. Please direct all questions to the same email address. Submissions from scholars of all academic ranks are welcome. All panels will be plenary, talks will be 20 minutes, and we expect to have a total of 12 speakers.
Funding for the conference is provided by the Claudine and Hans-Heiner Zaeslin-Bustany Foundation. Accommodation for all speakers will be provided, and travel costs can be reimbursed for travel within Europe (2nd class train) or travel from overseas (economy flights).
More information about our research, as well as the conference, can be found on our website: https://anglo-genres-atlantic-futures.philhist.unibas.ch/en/