About
Anna Forssberg is an Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at Karlstad University, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Language, Literature and Intercultural Studies. She is an active member of KuFo (the culture studies research group) at the university, where she has been conducting research on literary value in Swedish and American literature since 2020, primarily in collaboration with Anna Linzie.
Her research interests focus on:
- Comparative literary value systems
- Worker literature and representations of labor
- Author studies, particularly of Selma Lagerlöf and Aksel Sandemose
- Literary sociology and the representation of social structures
- Body representation and desire theory in literature
- Internationalization and transnational reception of literature
- Literary ecology and nature representation
Forssberg's scholarly work demonstrates a consistent engagement with how literature represents work, value systems, and social structures across different cultural contexts. Her recent publications show particular interest in Nordic perspectives on worker literature, the international reception of Swedish authors, and literary representations of the body and desire in industrial contexts. She frequently employs comparative approaches, examining connections between Swedish and American literature while exploring how literary works reflect and shape societal values.
Her scientific contributions include numerous publications on Selma Lagerlöf's international reception, worker literature beyond established canons, and the representation of reading and learning in works by Dickens, Zola, and Dos Passos. Forssberg's research often intersects literary theory with sociology, examining how literature reflects and influences social structures and value systems.
