Astrid Lindgren: Internationality and Intermediality

The conference will focus on Astrid Lindgren in the light of international children’s literature research, narratology, picturebook research, and media theory. These theoretical frameworks are indispensable for the concept of intermediality that focuses on the intimate relationships between different media. This concept calls attention to the transgression of media boundaries when at least two different media are concerned. Four types of intermediality can be distinguished:

a. Combination of different media, for example the juxtaposition of pictures and text in picturebooks, or the integration of films into computer games.
b. Transformation of one medium into another, for example film versions or adaptations for the stage of Lindgren’s children’s books.
c. Remediation, i.e. the conversion of an older medium into a new digital medium, for example the transformation of a printed book into an electronic book.
d. Intermedial relationships, for example the integration of literary narrative strategies into films or the influence of the film on Lindgren’s children’s books.

These types and strategies might help to analyze Lindgren’s children’s books, especially the influence of cinematic perspectives and narration on her novels, on the one hand, and to describe the multifaceted relationships between Lindgren’s original works and their transformation into different international media (adaptations for the stage, radio plays, musicals, film versions, computer games and so forth) on the other hand.