IWL is a beautiful gateway to the world

I participated twice in the IWL. My first time was at Harvard University, in 2013, and the second, at City University of Hong Kong in 2014. On these occasions I got to know David Damrosch, and he showed great interest in my work with Faroese literature and in similar tiny literary cultures. We agreed on doing a panel on very small literary cultures at the ACLA-conference at Harvard 2016 in order to gather people from across the world around the distinct qualities of very small literatures. We thought that ultraminor literatures deserve a more thoughtful attention as a different category than ‘minor literatures’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1986). In 2017 Damrosch and I published an issue of Journal of World Literature on Ultraminor Literatures. And now, in September 2022, we published an extended version of this issue called “Ultraminor World Literatures”. The concept has gradually had a fairly large impact and it has resulted in many invitations to give lectures around the world and many quotations as well. IWL meant that I got much more appetite to think interdisciplinary and to work across cultures and continents. I can’t imagine a better forum to connect with exciting literary scholars from across the world. IWL is a beautiful gateway to the world. Just as beautiful as this door behind me of the Widener Library at Harvard. I cannot imagine my career as a literary scholar without IWL.

Bergur Rønne Moberg

2013 & 2014 IWL alumnus, Harvard & CityU of Hong Kong

Associate Professor

Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics

University of Copenhagen