UiB's research group Literature & Religion will be an inclusive, cross-disciplinary forum for researchers at all levels who work on questions related to connections between literature and religion. Our focus on links between writing and belief systems embraces a wide spectrum of eras, geography and different languages: From ancient Egypt to modern England, from medieval Arabic to early modern German, and from texts on everything from occult alchemy to American Puritanism. By starting a dialogue across our many fields of work about different peoples and places, we want to find new ways of understanding forms of interaction between literature and religion.
The research group is open to interested researchers from all fields – such as religious studies, literary studies, history, archaeology, and so on. Our aim is to be able to learn from the most innovative and interesting approaches to each other's fields. For example: How can literary analysis tools be used in theological discussion?
How can theories of religion give impetus to poetics? And in general: What new horizons of understanding can be opened up by stepping outside our individual fields of study? With a cross-disciplinary approach as a starting point, we will be able to ask new questions and open up new challenges to established theories and methodologies in a number of contexts.
By facilitating various forms of professional conversation, this research group will establish contacts across the professional environments at UiB and through further networks, in order to establish a constructive environment that will promote innovative research.
