37.1372, Confs: Telling the Truth? Authorship, Audiences and Authenticity Across Discourse, Texts and Narratives (Online)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1372. Thu Apr 09 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1372, Confs: Telling the Truth? Authorship, Audiences and Authenticity Across Discourse, Texts and Narratives (Online)

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Date: 08-Apr-2026
From: Caroline Tagg [caroline.tagg at open.ac.uk]
Subject: Telling the Truth? Authorship, Audiences and Authenticity Across Discourse, Texts and Narratives


Telling the Truth? Authorship, Audiences and Authenticity Across
Discourse, Texts and Narratives

Date: 05-Nov-2026 - 06-Nov-2026
Location: Online
Contact: Caroline Tagg
Contact Email: OU-Truth-Conference at open.ac.uk
Meeting URL: https://telling-truth.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Forensic
Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Pragmatics

Submission Deadline: 15-May-2026

What constitutes “the truth” underpins contemporary debates and is
increasingly contested and politicised. This conference steps back to
reflect on the role played by “telling the truth” in literary works
and non-literary discourses across historical periods, languages and
cultures, with the aim of bringing a wide range of perspectives to
bear on a concept of enduring importance and throwing new light on
present-day tensions. Drawing on a range of analytical approaches from
across linguistics, literature, creative writing and translation
studies, contributions to the conference will focus not only on truth
as epistemic accuracy but as a relational function, a premise for
action, an ideological tool, an ethical act, a self- and
other-positioning resource, an organisational device, and a mechanism
of persuasion and control. The conference likewise proposes to examine
how the nature and circulation of truth-claims across languages,
literature and discourses are liable to be impacted by shifting
technologies and media ecologies. It explores how authorship and
authority shape what counts as truth and its consequences across a
variety of circumstances and time periods. It also invites an
evaluation of the relationship between authority and authenticity, or
the shift from notions of factual certainty to concepts of lived
experience, personal sincerity, and emotional truth. Finally, it
touches upon the novelty of the contemporary “post-truth” crisis,
highlighting a long history of unreliable narration, scepticism,
conspiracy theory, falsehood, misinformation and countercultures,
reconceptualising post-truth as an inherent part of the human
condition whilst seeking to understand its twenty-first century
realisation.
Telling the truth is hosted by the School of Languages and Applied
Linguistics (LAL) and the School of English and Creative Writing (ECW)
at The Open University, UK. The local organising committee is:
Caroline Tagg (chair), Francesca Benatti, Daria Chernysheva, Rachele
De Felice, Korina Giaxoglou, Suman Gupta, Kristina Hultgren, Karina
von Lindeiner-Stráský, Donáll Maccathmhaoill, Joanne Reardon, Philip
Seargeant



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