Fairytale Geographies: Folklore, Setting, and the Supernatural

Fairytale Geographies – Island Dynamics

Fairytale Geographies: Folklore, Setting, and the Supernatural
04-07 October 2027, Odense, Kerteminde, & Copenhagen, Denmark
Theme Folktales and fairytales (broadly defined) are often studied in terms of their plots, motifs, themes, characters, and social meanings. Less attention is paid to the settings in which they occur. Yet setting is not a passive backdrop in traditional oral and literary written narratives. It is a dynamic force that shapes character, drives plot, and bridges the gap between the mundane and the miraculous.
From the depths of the Central European forests, to the bottom of the sea; from the liminal spaces of bogs, crossroads, and seashores, to haunted mansions and gingerbread houses; from bustling city streets, to the mundanity of the farmhouse; from the lofty halls of Heaven to the gloom of the Underworld, the geography of the fairytale is always alive with meaning.
This conference explores how landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, and other geographies function within traditional narratives. Tradition is not something of the past; it exists in the present and influences the creation and recreation of fairytales and folktales today. The conference is thus not limited to discussions of narratives recorded or written by folklorists, authors, literati, or antiquarians in previous centuries. It also encompasses tales that proliferate as texts and videos across social media, internet streaming services, and in movie theatres as well as those that are continually reinvented by new authors for new audiences and published in traditional print media. Still-emergent forms such as serialised internet fiction and ultrashort video dramas represent frontiers of traditional narrative.