PALA 2026: The Philosophy of Stylistics, 17–22 August 2026

Academic programme

A draft conference programme pdf, 1 MB. is now available

Social events

We have organized a number of social events throughout the conference, some of which are included in the cost of registration. You are welcome to attend any or all of these events – simply sign up to the ones you wish to come to when you register.

Wednesday 19 August – Rector’s Reception

A welcome reception hosted by the University Vice Chancellor, Professor Anders Hagfeldt. To be held in Universitetshuset, the main conference venue. Wine, soft drinks and light snacks will be served. Included in your registration fee.

Thursday 20 August – Tour of Carolina Rediviva

A chance to visit the main University Library, Carolina Rediviva. Delegates will be shown round in groups of 25 and will have the opportunity to see rare manuscripts from the library’s collections, including the 6th-century Codex Argenteus, or Silver Bible, the main source of what we know about the Gothic language. Included in your registration fee but places are limited so sign up early to avoid disappointment!

Friday 21 August – Reception in the Linneaus Garden, Uppsala

A drinks reception in Sweden’s oldest botanical garden, founded in 1655 by Olof Rudbeck the elder and later the home of Carl Linnaeus, Professor of Medicine and Botany at Uppsala University between 1741 and 1778. Included in your registration fee.

Saturday 22 August – Conference Dinner, The Botanical Garden, Uppsala

The conference dinner will be held in the beautiful surroundings of the University’s Botanical Garden. Previously situated east of the Fyris river, the current garden was founded in 1787, when King Gustav III donated the gardens of Uppsala Castle to the University. The castle gardens were designed in the baroque style by the architect Carl Hårleman in the 1750s. The king also donated money for the construction of the Linneanum, the building which houses the Botanical Garden’s Orangery. According to Gustav III’s deed of donation, the Baroque Garden must be kept in the same condition as when it was donated. Not included in your registration fee. To book, select the Conference Dinner option when registering.

Sunday 23 August – Day Trip to Skokloster Castle

Skokloster Castle is one of the world’s best preserved baroque castles, located on the Sko Peninsula beside Lake Mälaren. We will be travelling by boat from Uppsala, a journey of around two hours. Lunch will be served on the boat and is included in the cost. There will be a guided tour of the castle and the opportunity to explore the grounds and relax in the gardens. It is also possible to swim in the lake. We will return by boat to Uppsala. Not included in your registration fee. To book, select the Skokloster Castle option when registering. Please note that places are limited so sign up early to avoid disappointment!

The theme of the PALA 2026 Summer School is ‘Stylistics: Back to the Future?’

We are delighted that the Summer School will this year be taught by:

Katie Wales, Honorary Professor, School of English, University of Nottingham, UK.

Michael Toolan, Emeritus Professor of English Language, University of Birmingham, UK.

Katie Wales is one of PALA’s founding members and Michael Toolan is one of PALA’s longest-standing members.

This is a rare opportunity to study with two major figures in stylistics.

Abstract

In this 2-day Summer School, entitled Back to the Future, we want to show that using stylistics (in the language-learning or literature classroom, or simply to assist you in your own writing and reading) gives you ‘a way into’ a text, starting a conversation about what the text does and seems to mean. Stylistics starts a journey, and gives you resources to continue that journey or dialogue. It provides a language to talk about the language of texts; or we can say it gives us resources, a ‘toolkit’, robust and linguistically-validated ways of describing texts and thereby helping readers to understand and more fully appreciate them.

Structure of programme

We will run a series of 10 individual ‘hands on’ seminars over the 2 days; and opening and concluding joint discussion sessions The seminars will be focussed explorations of carefully selected texts and the specific challenges they pose for readers and writers. For each of the topics we introduce there will be writing or analysis exercises to be undertaken individually or in groups, including some re-writing tasks. We very much want to make the 2 days enjoyable as well as stimulating.

Topics will include the uses of metaphor in the opening of Charles Dickens’ novels; grammetrics and text world theory applied to Edward Lear’s poetry; voice and readings of poems by Philip Larkin and Sinead Morrissey; concision and ellipsis in ‘flash fiction’; problems in unattributed speech in contemporary fiction; adapting a story into a play; and using corpora as stylistic tools. There will also be two seminars on ‘applied stylistics’: rhetoric and multi-modality in ‘green’ packaging; and using language ideologies in the EFL classroom.

Recommended background library reading

Lesley Jeffries and Dan McIntyre (2025) Stylistics. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dan McIntyre and Brian Walker (2019) Corpus Stylistics: Theory and Practice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Mick Short (1995) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. London: Longman.

Michael Toolan (2001) Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Katie Wales (2011) A Dictionary of Stylistics. 3rd edition. London: Longman.

N.B. Registration for the summer school will open soon.

Organising committee

Dan McIntyre
Professor of English Language
Department of English

David Håkansson
Professor of Swedish Language
Department of Scandinavian Languages

Carin Östman
Associate Professor in Nordic Languages
Department of Scandinavian Languages

Please contact Academic Conferences if you have any questions about registration, travel and accommodation:

E-mail: reg.pala2026@akademikonferens.se
Tel: +46 (0)18-67 10 03

Please contact the Organizing Committee if you have questions regarding abstracts, the conference programme, or any other academic aspects of the conference:

E-mail: pala2026eng@uu.se