[ecrea] Conference Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture

Conference: Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture – Books, Cinema and 
Television

21-22 March 2013, Aalborg, Denmark

Call for Papers



www.bestseller-blockbuster.aau.dk

Bestsellers are on exclusive display in local supermarkets; in bookshops 
conspicuous screens and posters promote the weekly bestsellers, and in 
the digital world, a vast amount of websites, from encyclopaedias to 
newspapers and weblogs, are ranking their contributions according to 
their number of readers and/or responses. The bestseller and blockbuster 
lists and the TV ratings make up a barometer of shifting issues and 
attitudes of the surrounding society. Simultaneously, some popular 
genres appear to be constantly present, as is indeed the case for crime 
fiction and thrillers, but also biographies or biopics as well as 
historical fiction.



Considering the omnipresence of the bestseller concept in everyday life, 
the bestseller culture seems a valid label to describe our contemporary 
culture. In the area of feature films, the corresponding concept is the 
blockbuster. The scope of the term has broadened to include the entire 
culture surrounding movies with a broad public appeal. The motto of 
Yellow Bird Films (Millennium, Wallander) is illuminating: 'We turn 
bestsellers into blockbusters.' In television fiction, the bestseller 
and blockbuster culture has had its impact as well. Bestsellers are 
frequently adapted for television; film and TV adaptations are often the 
beginning of TV spin offs.



In spite of the influence of postmodernist theory and practice, the 
bestseller concept is often associated with literature of inferior 
quality, whereas the minority taste literature with its modest market 
shares is regarded a priori as ‘high literature’. In cinema, a similar 
contrast is found between blockbuster movies and art cinema. In 
television, the concepts of ‘quality television’ and ’art 
television’have developed in contrast to e.g. 'trash television'. 
However, the domains of literature, film and TV reveal a multitude of 
examples of works combining quality and popularity, thus confirming the 
inadequacy of the common polarization. This is why a close investigation 
into the mechanisms and functions of the bestseller and blockbuster 
culture is needed, including its relations to crucial aesthetic concepts 
such as classics, canon and quality.

We welcome papers within (but not restricted to) the following research 
areas:

1.            Bestseller and Blockbuster in Historical and 
Conceptualizing Perspectives

Concepts of bestseller and/or blockbuster

Highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow: cultural hierarchies in history

Cultures of popular reading through history

Bestsellers in history

>From Hollywood to Bollywood and Hong Kong Movies

Corresponding concepts for television serials



2.            Present and Future of Bestsellers and Blockbusters

The book market today and in the future

Trends in bestsellers of the present

Cultural hierarchies of today

E-books, e-literature and audiobooks

Trends in current television serials or movies

Telling stories on several platforms in media convergent cultures

Bestsellers/blockbusters cross media

Multimedial storytelling



3.            The Quality Concept

Bestsellers/blockbusters as trash and/or quality culture?

Genre and style in bestsellers/blockbusters

How can “Art Cinema” and “Art Television” be popular television?

Bestsellers and standards of quality

Production values and reception qualities



4.            The production of bestsellers and blockbusters

Planning a bestseller and a blockbuster

International co-productions

Bestseller and blockbuster celebrities

The author as celebrity

Adaptations: from bestseller to blockbuster or popular TV serials

International, transcultural  adaptions

The tie in effect

Spin off and merchandise cultures: marketing, bestseller tourism, 
computer games and cross media productions



Confirmed keynote speakers

Jim Collins, University of Notre Dame: "Fifty Shades of Seriality and 
Ereader Games"

Margaret Mackey, University of Alberta: “Bestsellers, Blockbusters, and 
the Ever-Expanding Multiverse of Spin-Offs”

Constantine Verevis,  Monash University, Melbourne: ”Blockbuster Remakes."

Lothar Mikos, Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen, Babelsberg: 
“Transnational co-productions in film and television”



Ole Søndberg, Yellowbird: “Yellow Bird's ways of turning bestsellers 
into blockbusters – international co-operations and co-productions”



Confirmed papers by network members

Helle Kannik Haastrup:”The Blockbuster Auteur”

Rikke Schubart: “Game of Thrones (2011–): The Making of a Blockbuster 
Television Show as Fantasy for Adult Audiences”

Anne Gjelsvik: ”From text to title: Selling the book through the title 
sequence (from Sherlock Holmes to Game of Thrones)”

Palle Schantz Lauridsen: "I hear of Sherlock everywhere" - the 
contemporary revitalisation of Sherlock Holmes”

Ann Steiner: "Contemporary Book Trade and the International Bestseller 
Culture"

Maria Beville: “Lurking Fears: Mediating Otherness in Popular Horror Cinema”



Birgit Eriksson: ”New cultural hierarchies? Bestsellers, blockbusters 
and creative omnivores.”



Organizers

The conference is organized by an interdisciplinary, cross institutional 
committee of Danish researchers, specializing in this area: Gunhild 
Agger, D Phil, Professor, Department of Culture and Global Studies, 
Aalborg University, Anne Marit Waade, PhD, Associate Professor, 
Department of Aesthetics and Communication - Media Studies, Aarhus 
University, Rasmus Grøn, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of 
Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Hans Jørn Nielsen, 
PhD, Associate Professor, The Royal School of Library and Information 
Science.

For further information, please contact Gunhild Agger: (gunhild /at/ cgs.aau.dk)

Plans for publications

The organizers have made an agreement with the academic online journal 
Academic Quarter. The title of Academic Quarter # 7, December 2013, will 
be Bestseller and Blockbuster Culture. Editors will be the organizers of 
the conference.

Deadlines

Submission of abstracts November 1, 2012

Acceptance of abstracts November 10, 2012

Early bird registration November 15, 2012

Standard registration December 15, 2012

Submission of paper February 15, 2013

The registration fee is EURO 210 (early bird) / EURO 243 (standard) , 
covering access to all sessions, two lunches, coffee breaks, one 
conference dinner, hotel accommodation for 1 night at Hotel Scheelsminde 
and conference material.

All participants – including participants without a paper – have to 
register at the conference website.





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Ms Marianne Høgsbro

Department of Culture and Global Studies

Aalborg University Kroghstræde 1, room 2. 007

DK- 9220 Aalborg East

Phone: +45 9940 9810

Fax: + 45 9815 7887

EAN: 5798000420793

Skype:marianne.hoegsbro

Whereabouts



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