Book of Abstracts

Fafnir Anniversary Symposium, Archipelacon 2,
Mariehamn 26–29 June, 2025


Thursday June 26

A rebel from the waist downwards: Re-voicing Orwell’s Julia

(11–12, Ramsö)

Jessica Norledge

University of Nottingham

The feminist re-telling has received substantial popular and critical interest in recent years, with re-tellings of myths, legends, and popular fairy tales giving a voice to those who have been customarily silenced (Zipes 1986). Such works, which are often satirical or parodic in nature, characteristically reflect upon and challenge stereotypical representations of gender and gender politics, presenting nuanced forms of social criticism (Haneș 2019), and making new lives from old tales (Heilbrun 1990). Sandra Newman’s (2023) Julia imagines such a life.

This paper explores the relationship between George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Sandra Newman’s (2023) feminist dystopian re-telling, Julia. Analytical focus is placed on the re-voicing of Julia, and the ways in which Newman re-imagines her relationship with Winston Smith, the Party, and the infamous Big Brother. In taking a feminist-stylistic perspective, I trace the nuanced linguistic differences between the two narratives, examining the subtle changes in action, agency and perspective Newman makes in order to re-position and re-characterise Julia as more than ‘a rebel from the waist downwards’ (Orwell 1949: 163). I focus in particular on the re-imagining of Julia and Winston’s first illicit meeting, applying Hallidayan transitivity to unpack the specific semantic elements that signal ‘who does what to whom and how’ (see Mills 1995). In so doing, I aim to highlight how the process of feminist re-telling can offer new insights into dystopian storytelling, and consider both the challenges and potential rewards of re-imagining classic dystopian works from a contemporary 21st-century perspective.

Keywords
feminist re-telling, dystopian fiction, narrative re-telling, feminist stylistics, transitivity

References

Halliday, M. A. K. (2013). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 4th ed. London: Arnold.

Haneș, I-G. (2019) ‘Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad – Rewriting in Postmodern Feminine Literature’. Journal of humanistic and social studies X(2): 9–20.

Heilbrun, C. G. (1991) Hamlet’s Mother and Other Women. New York: Ballantine Books. 

Mills, S. (1995) Feminist Stylistics. London: Routledge.

Orwell, G. (1949) Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Penguin.

Newman, S. (2023) Julia. Croydon: Granta.

Zipes, J. (1986) ‘Preface’. In. J. Zipes (ed.) Don’t Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England. New York: Methuen. 

Jessica Norledge is Assistant Professor in Stylistics at the University of Nottingham (UK). She is a stylistician and discourse analyst with a particular expertise in the cognitive poetics of emotion, feminist stylistics, and worlds theories in speculative fiction. Her most recent work focuses on the language and style of feminist dystopian fiction. She is the author of The Language of Dystopia (2022) and one of the Editors-in-Chief of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research.

How Do Post-Publication Self-Revisions Differ From Other-Revised Ones? The Revised Finnish Translations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion

(12-13, Ramsö)

Sonja Virta

University of Turku, Finland

My aim in this presentation is to examine, compare and contrast how the post-publication revisions made by the original translator (“self-revision”) differ from those by someone other than the original translator (“other-revision”) in the context of fantasy literature by J. R. R. Tolkien. The post-publication revision of translations is a relatively unexplored topic (Koskinen 2018; Washbourne 2016), and work comparing the corrections made by self-revisers to ones by other-revisers is especially needed. Moreover, although self-revision in general is said to be less common than other-revision (Washbourne 2016), the self-revised material in my data is even more exceptional than one would expect. The presentation gives a first taste of my PhD research, which concentrates on several different perspectives on the revisions made to Finnish Tolkien translations after their original publication.

The material in both this presentation and my PhD consists of the revised Finnish translations of two works by Tolkien: a self-revised translation, revised by translator Kersti Juva, of The Lord of the Rings (LotR), which was published in Finnish as Taru Sormusten herrasta (TSH), and an other-revised translation of The Silmarillion, revised by editor and translator Alice Martin, which was published in Finnish as Silmarillion. Juva was the main original translator of both texts, which are set in the same secondary world.

Veteran translator Juva, one of the three original translators of TSH, revised the work with nearly 50 years more experience than what she had when she, then a novice translator, bore the main responsibility for the commission. Returning to revise one’s own work after such a long time is very unusual, making this material even more remarkable than most.

In addition to giving examples of the various types of corrections by Juva as self-reviser and Martin as other-reviser, I will also suggest explanations for the differences.

References

Koskinen, K. (2018) Revising and retranslating. In: K. Washbourne & B. Van Wyke, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation, London: Routledge, pp. 315–324.

Washbourne, K. (2016) Revised Translations: Strategic Rationales and the Intricacies of Authorship. Translation & Literature, 25 (2), 151–170.

Sonja Virta (“Heathertoes”), MA, is a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku, Finland, studying the post-publication corrections made to Finnish Tolkien translations. Her MA thesis discussed the translation strategies used in the Finnish translations of The Lord of the Rings and the parody Bored of the Rings. As an independent Tolkien scholar, she studied, e.g. Tove Jansson’s illustrations for The Hobbit.

Virta is a former chairperson of The Finnish Tolkien Society and is currently responsible for academic affairs. She is also a founding member and a former board member of the Tove Jansson Society.

What We Talk about When We Talk about Ghosts

(14–15, Ramsö)

Essi Varis

University of Helsinki

Human experience is prone to glitches. Anomalous, unexplained phenomena have been reported around the world throughout history by all demographics, and in the absence of other likely explanations, these phenomena are sometimes attributed to spectral, divine, alien, or otherwise paranormal entities. Cognitively, “the paranormal” thus serves as a residual category for events that cannot be classified otherwise. That is to say, labeling an event as “paranormal” is often a signal that the experiencer is uncertain of the frame of reference from which they should interpret the event. This can make the experience in question uniquely malleable: the lack of one definitive explanation creates an epistemic void that invites various alternative explanations. The accumulation of these alternative explanations could sometimes be considered a narratively and imaginatively rich frame of reference in its own right – a tangled web of culturally shared speculations that enables us to manage our fear of the Unknown.

In my essayistic presentation, I explore this cognitive-narrative ontology of paranormal entities. Ghosthunters usually seek to resolve once and for all whether ghosts are “real” in any physical, measurable sense – but the persistent unsolvability of that very question already lends the specters another kind of presence. The possibility of their existence, no matter how imagined, may already affect our behavior by altering our (perceptions of) possibilities for action. In terms of 4E cognitive theories, a “ghost” could thus be considered an enactment of uncertainty, or a symptom of interacting with the environment in a way that makes one aware of everything with which one is profoundly unable to interact. I will briefly dissect some ghost stories and purportedly paranormal YouTube videos in order to reveal some of the rhetorical and narrative tactics commonly used to conjure and sustain speculative engagement with these uncertainties and unknowns.

Essi Varis, PhD is a creative scholar interested in cognitive, interdisciplinary and art-based approaches to narratives and imagination. She defended her compilation dissertation on multimodal fictional characters in the University of JyvĂ€skylĂ€ in 2019. Since then, she has migrated to the University of Helsinki (via the University of Oslo) and investigated how interacting with different kinds of texts and images enables speculative thinking. She has been an active board member in the Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research since 2016 and served as an editor-in-chief of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research in 2021–2023.

Zombie Girls Save the World!
(15–16, Ramsö)

Marjut Puhakka
University of Oulu, Finland

Post-apocalyptic dystopias populated by zombies have produced an unusual kind of saviour: the zombie girl. In my dissertation, I examine how consciousness as an intersubjective factor creates fictitious characters in smart zombie stories. A clear pattern emerged in the narratives I analyzed – I Am Legend, iZombie, The Girl with All the Gifts, The Passage, and The Last of Us – all feature intelligent young female zombies, vampires or immune humans who are framed as the last hope for humankind.

While zombie narratives have often been explored through postcolonial theory or the concept of Otherness, there is a lack of Jungian feminist readings. I propose the figure of the zombie girl as a contemporary female hero archetype, positioned in the liminal space between life and death. My reading draws on feminist depth psychology, particularly Clarissa Pinkola EstĂ©s’ Women Who Run With the Wolves (1992), which emphasizes neglected female archetypes, and critiques of traditional ones like those in Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Goddesses in Everywoman (1984). Even when female heroes do appear in pop culture, they often replicate masculine traits. The zombie girl represents a radical departure: her gender, age, and monstrosity challenge conventional heroic norms.

This paper argues that the zombie girl embodies the “dark feminine” – a figure historically underrepresented in Western narratives, yet vital for reimagining female agency. Her emergence points to shifting cultural imaginaries about femininity, power, and transformation. In reinterpreting the hero archetype through a feminist Jungian lens, I seek to contribute to a broader reevaluation of gender in popular fiction. As societal gender roles evolve, fiction both reflects and shapes that transformation.

Friday June 27

Strange Women Lying in Ponds
(10–11, Ramsö)

Cheryl Morgan

Everyone had heard of the Lady of the Lake, and if asked, would probably locate her at Glastonbury. However, many lakes and rivers in Wales, and at least one in Cornwall, are inhabited by mysterious maidens, the Gwragedd Annwn (the Wives of the Underworld). Many of them own herds of cows rather than magic swords. There is an entire ecosystem of them out there. And, of course, Sir Walter Scott locates the lady and her lake in Scotland.

In this paper I will look at folk tales about these watery women, their possible origins in ancient mythology and religious practice, their relation to the characters in The Mabinogion, their eventual transformation into a variety of characters in Arthurian legend, and their emergence into the modern world.

Cheryl Morgan is a writer, editor, and publisher. She has won four Hugo Awards and owns Wizard’s Tower Press. Her non-fiction has appeared in venues including Locus, the SF Encyclopaedia, Vector and Strange Horizons. Her fiction has appeared in various small press magazines and anthologies. Cheryl was a Guest of Honour at the 2012 Eurocon in Zagreb and the 2019 Finncon in JyvĂ€skylĂ€. She was a keynote speaker at Worlding SF at the University of Graz in 2018, and at When It Changed, a conference on feminist science fiction organised by the University of Glasgow in December 2022.

(Re)Imagining the Monkey King: Sun Wukong and His Spirit of Rebellion in Contemporary Chinese Cross-Media Fantasy

(11–12, Ramsö)

Fu Ruoyu

University of Cologne

Gao Weiming

University of Freiburg

Yang Jiayin

University of Freiburg

As one of the most representative classical Chinese fantasy works, Journey to the West and its protagonist Sun Wukong (Monkey King) have been continuously reinterpreted. Within the cultural context of modern China, Sun Wukong has come to symbolize revolution and resistance, evolving into a universal emblem of rebellious spirit. Since the reform and opening-up, Chinese popular culture has shown renewed interest in classical mythology and fantasy, with Sun Wukong becoming a pervasive cultural icon across various cross-media adaptations. 

This paper examines three cross-media fantasy works from three different decades of the 21st century, analyzing how Sun Wukong’s rebellious character has been shaped and how shifting socio-political ideologies have influenced his deconstruction and reconstruction. Jin Hezai’s novel Wu Kong (2000) first combined Sun Wukong’s rebellious spirit with a coming-of-age narrative about youth predicaments, which deeply resonated in emotion with the internet generation of readers. Through presenting the Monkey King’s development towards legendary hero, Monkey King: Hero Is Back (Tian Xiaopeng, 2015) offers an alternative perspective of reading the negative aspects of rebelliousness of the character’s personality, which as a process of redemption of his inner self. Most recently, Game Science’s video game Black Myth: Wukong (2024) deconstructs Sun into fragmented relics, compelling players to confront the full cost and confusion of rebellion. 

Against the backdrop of neoliberal narratives and developmentalist myths in contemporary China, political-based reforms and media-based re-formations have become deeply intertwined. The continuous reimagining of Sun Wukong reflects a cyclical process of ideological negotiation, where idealism and realism coexist. This study thus offers a unique lens through which to examine the evolution of youth discourse in contemporary Chinese thought via the fantasy genre.

Fu Ruoyu is a PhD candidate of Media Studies at the University of Cologne. Her area of interests is transnational film remake, reception studies, and digital media

Gao Weiming is a PhD candidate in Sinology at the University of Freiburg. His main research interest is science fiction and fantasy in the era of globalisation, especially in ACG. 

Yang Jiayin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sinology at the University of Freiburg. Her current research focuses on contemporary Chinese fantasy literature and Wuxia fiction, exploring their narrative structures, cultural influences, and genre evolution.

Simultaneous Consciousness in Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life”, 

or What the Heptapods Can Teach Us About Climate Change

(13–14, Ramsö)

Essi Vatilo

Tampere University

Ted Chiang’s first encounter novella “The Story of Your Life” presents a mind-twisting thought experiment where the protagonist begins to experience the past, the present and the future simultaneously. Through this change in Louise’s mode of awareness the story discusses determinism, free will, agency and how we deal with the inevitable, especially in the face of the finitude of life. While “The Story of Your Life” is demonstrably not a climate change story, in my presentation I will nonetheless consider it as an allegory of climate change, connecting the themes of foreknowledge, determinism, free will, agency and the change in consciousness to climate change. Rather than seeing the foreknowledge of the death of the protagonist’s daughter as an expression of climate change, which would lead to a fatalist interpretation of our future as doomed from the outset, I will explore the arrival of the alien heptapods as the corresponding event to climate change. The unprecedented encounter with the heptapods generates a possibility for a new mode of existence for those willing to learn their language, and along the same lines we might see climate change – also an unprecedented event that defies traditional responses –  as requiring/inviting a new mode of perceiving the world, both in order to adapt to the changing world but also to fight climate change. Connecting the queer temporalities of Louise’s simultaneous consciousness and Fermat’s principle presented in the story with philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s concept of occurring time, I will argue that climate change challenges our conceptions of free will and agency, and what might actually be needed to combat climate change is to see it as inevitable, as counterintuitive as that may seem.

Essi Vatilo is a PhD candidate at Tampere University. She is writing her dissertation on future responsibility and its denial in science fiction, focusing on climate change, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering in a selection of sf novels, short stories, television and movies from the 1980s to the present.

Climate Change in Contemporary Swedish Mainstream Fiction
(14–15, Ramsö)

Jerry MÀÀttÀ

Stockholm University

Since the turn of the millennium, a large number of Swedish mainstream authors have started to show interest in topics often associated with science fiction and dystopias, such as civil war, artificial intelligence, surveillance, and radically changed gender roles. The aim of this talk, however, is to discuss some contemporary Swedish novels and short stories dealing with climate change, and how Swedish mainstream authors have imagined and depicted the near-future effects of the ongoing Earth system transformation.

Focusing on a relatively large number of novels and short story collections published in recent years – such as Conny Palmqvist’s Vintern (The Winter, 2016), Nils HĂ„kanson’s ÖdmĂ„rden (The Backwoods, 2017), Hanna Rut Carlsson’s Sista hösten i Legoland (The Last Autumn in Legoland, 2019), Jesper Weithz’s 2020: En framtidsoptimistisk roman (2020: A Future-Optimistic Novel, 2020), Jens Liljestrand’s Även om allt tar slut (Even if Everything Ends, 2021), Anna Dahlquist’s Det Ă€r tropiska nĂ€tter nu (It’s Tropical Nights Now, 2021), Jonas Gren’s Kromosomparken (The Chromosome Park, 2022), Johanna Holmström’s Handbok i klardrömmar (Handbook of Lucid Dreaming, 2022), Erik HĂ„gĂ„rd’s Ursinnet (The Rage, 2023), and Niklas RĂ„dström’s Drömmarna vi tillsammans drömmer (The Dreams We Dream Together, 2024) – the paper explores what kinds of scenarios are portrayed, how climate change is depicted narratively and stylistically, the varying focus on ecosystems, societal and psychological effects, and how all this is related to the narrative strategies and interests of science fiction proper. Whereas climate change has been a fairly popular topic in Swedish literary fiction in the last decade, this body of works has rarely been acknowledged as a subgenre of its own, and has practically never been discussed in relation to science fiction and its particular narrative strategies.

Jerry MÀÀttĂ€ is Associate Professor (Docent) in Literature and Senior Lecturer in History, Cultural Studies, and Publishing Studies at the Department of History, Stockholm University, Sweden. Since his dissertation on the launch and reception of modern science fiction in Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s, he has mostly published on the contemporary Swedish book market, literary prizes and awards, audio books, and Anglophone apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives in film and literature. He is currently working on the project “Utopia Unsettled: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Swedish Dystopian Fiction”, funded by the Swedish Research Council (2022–2025).

Saturday June 28

Scrooge McDuck – a travel agent between worlds. From Duckburg to Shambala in Don Rosa’s Disney Comics

(10–11, Ramsö)

Katja Kontturi

Scrooge McDuck is something else. He can smell the presence of valued metals. He can dive in and swim in the piles of coins like a porpoise. And he has a special ability to locate various fantasy worlds. This presentation follows the claims I made in my doctoral dissertation (2014): Don Rosa’s Scrooge McDuck is a fantastic character who practically made Duckburg the city that it is. Without Scrooge’s financial support, the little town would not have grown to be a city with fantastic features.

Firstly, I will present the character of Scrooge McDuck and how he and his history are depicted in Don Rosa’s comics. Secondly, I will show my theory of Duckburg’s special status between the primary (the normal) and secondary (the fantastic) world. Here Scrooge’s position becomes the key element of fantasy: in a sense, he is a travel agent who leads other characters to the fantasy worlds, with the help of Junior Woodchuck Guidebook provided by nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Lastly, I will present an example of a fantastic world Shambala from Rosa’s comic “The Treasure of Ten Avatars” (1996). Shambala is a typical pocket world: located within primary world, but hidden from the regular people. What makes Shambala different from the worlds in the comics I have discussed in my doctoral dissertation, is that it is an abandoned city without a population. There is a strong intertextual connection to Indiana Jones stories with myths, ancient lore and traps, with the addition of a possibly magical elephant. The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook plays a significant role in the story. Typical of Don Rosa, there is a strong symbolism in the end: the treasure goes to the people, not to the already wealthy.

This presentation is based on a work-in-progress article that is accepted in a book called Fantasy Tourism – Experience, Belonging, Heritage, Meaning-Making, Ecologies and Futures.

Katja Kontturi has a PhD in contemporary culture studies. Her doctoral dissertation (2014) dealt with Don Rosa’s Disney comics as postmodern fantasy. Currently, she works as a university teacher of written communication in the University of JyvĂ€skylĂ€.

Kontturi’s research interests include comics, speculative fiction, creative and therapeutic writing, and geek culture. Recently, after several years of solely teaching, she has returned to her beloved Disney comics research. Kontturi is the second representative of Finland in the board of NNCORE (Nordic Network for Comics Research). In March 2025, Zum Teufel published a nonfiction book based on her Don Rosa dissertation.

Economics of extraterrestrial mining in fact and fiction

(11–12, Ramsö)

Jesper Stage

LuleÄ University of Technology

Extraterrestrial mining is still at a very early stage, but from academic research on the potential business models it is now possible to assess what the economics of extraterrestrial mining are likely to look like in practice. If and when it develops it is likely to be extremely capital intensive, with capital-to-labour ratios comparable to or higher than the most capital intensive mining operations on Earth. Looking at fictional portrayals of extraterrestrial mining, on the other hand, these frequently describe far more labour intensive operations of a type which is no longer common in the richer countries on Earth and which now only exists in the global South. This is understandable from a storytelling perspective; it is far easier to write or create exciting stories about plucky one-person or few-person mining operations than about the gigantic mining conglomerates that are likely to characterise extraterrestrial mining in practice. However, if these fictional portrayals affect how citizens and policymakers think about taxation or regulation of extraterrestrial mining, that can lead to undesirable outcomes. The extraterrestrial mining startups that are currently trying to attract funding will, if they are successful, develop into companies that have far more in common with today’s giant mining conglomerates than with fictional Belters, and policymakers should bear this in mind when deciding how to tax and regulate them.

Jesper Stage is a professor of economics at LuleÄ University of Technology in Sweden, specialising in environmental and natural resource economics and often giving talks on economic topics at science fiction conventions. He no longer has any idea how many science fiction conventions he has attended.

Dialogue: Speculating through poetry and music

(13–14, Ramsö)

Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, University of the Arts Helsinki Research Institute

Jari KÀkelÀ, University of Helsinki

Speculation is often discussed in the context of narrative prose, but also other art forms, such as visual arts, poetry, and music, can utilize speculation as a method (e.g. Chu 2010; Arlander 2017; Tsao 2017; Halonen 2019; Elgh 2024). In this dialogic presentation two science fiction researchers and artists, poet Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (aka Ansa Walo) and musician Jari KĂ€kelĂ€ (aka Johannes Karkia), discuss their ongoing collaborative project “Karkia Walo” that combines poetry and music with a view on speculation.

In the discussion, we draw connections between art-making, speculative fiction research, and artistic research. By artistic research, we refer to the mode of research that considers art as an important means of producing aesthetic and embodied knowledge (e.g. Caduff & WĂ€lchli 2019). We follow previous research on how artists use speculation in their artistic practice as well as artistic research (e.g. Arlander 2017; Halonen 2019; Varis 2022). The talk is related to the performance “Kiertoradalla (avaruusromua)” [“In orbit (space debris)”], also offered to the Archipelacon programme, where Karkia Walo interlaces poetry inspired by sci-fi, popular culture and science news with interplanetary soundscapes on modular synthesizers.

Dr. Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (PhD, Title of Docent) is a poet, scholar, freelance writer, and teacher of creative writing, who currently works as a university researcher at the University of the Arts Helsinki Research Institute. Their current artistic research project deals with feminist, collaborative practices of collaborative writing, or “writing-with”.

Dr Jari KÀkelÀ (PhD) is a musician, literary scholar, translator and teacher who currently works as a university lecturer in English Studies at the University of Helsinki. His current research deals with Golden Age science fiction and its televisual adaptations, and hopepunk in the works of authors such as Sarah Pinsker and Becky Chambers.

Works Cited:

Arlander, Annette (2017): Artistic Research as Speculative Practice. JAR – Journal of Artistic Research. https://jar-online.net/en/artistic-research-speculative-practice

Corina Caduff & Tan WĂ€lchli (2019): Introducing Literature in the Discourse of Artistic Research. In Corina Caduff, Tan WĂ€lchli (eds.) Artistic Research and Literature. Brill Open, 1-9.

Chu, Seo-Young (2010): Do metaphors dream of literal sleep? A science-fictional theory of representation. Harvard University Press.

Elgh, Caroline (2024): Tracing “Chthulucene Environmental Imaginations” in Contemporary Art: The Speculative in the Work of Larissa Sansour and Johannes Helden. In Korpua, Jyrki, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Marta Mboka Tveit (eds.): Nordic Speculative Fiction: Research, Theory, and Practice. Routledge.

Halonen, Henna-Riikka (2019): Throws of dice: between experience and explanation. PhD dissertation. Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-404-9

Koistinen, Aino-Kaisa & Line Henriksen (2024): Coda: Speculative conversation (a poetic inquiry). In Korpua, Jyrki, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Marta Mboka Tveit (eds.): Nordic Speculative Fiction: Research, Theory, and Practice. Routledge, 300–307.

Spiegel, Simon (2008): Things made strange: On the concept of” estrangement” in science fiction theory. Science Fiction Studies, 35(3), 369-385.

Tsao, Ming (2017): What is Speculative Music Composition. Parse, issue 7, Autumn 2017. https://parsejournal.com/article/what-is-speculative-music-composition/

Varis, Essi (2022): Kuinka kirjailija spekuloi? Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 9(2), 12-28. http://journal.finfar.org/articles/2536.pdf

Neoliberal Eugenics, or Cheap Genetically Modified Humans in Contemporary Science Fiction Literature

(14–15, Ramsö)

Jani Ylönen

University of JyvÀskylÀ

Creation of life and the ethical questions concerning it have been a central theme in modern science fiction since its early days. After all, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), widely considered the first modern science fiction novel, an unethically experiment is used to create a human out of body parts belonging to different former entities. With the advances in genetic technology, science has moved to examining life in much smaller building blocks, but with also with similar intentions and ethical questions. Indeed, in 2018 the first prenatally genetically modified humans were born.

Since Shelley science fiction has not only speculated and commented on the technologies developed, but also on the societies where they are employed. Science fiction has discussed, for example, the eugenistic scripts especially relevant in the science and politics of the early 20th century and the neoliberal capitalism of the late 20th century. My argument in this presentation is that the early 21st century has shown strong interest in the combination of these two movements, what I refer to as neoliberal eugenics.

In my presentation, I will discuss 21st century science fiction literature and how genetic reproductive technology and eugenics are visible in the genre. Through examining genetically modified characters who have been created for specific purposes yet also to be disposed easily, I build a case how science fiction is discussing a new style of eugenics that have been forged in the fires of neoliberalism.

Jani Ylönen is a late-stage doctoral candidate working on finally finishing his PhD in ethical and intersectional questions concerning genetic reproductive technology in contemporary science fiction. After the thesis, he might want to research something fluffier like dogs in science fiction or at least cool like dragons in speculative fiction.    

From Crack-Up to Crosshatch: Spatial Politics in Urban Fantasy

(15–16, Ramsö)

Christian Schneider

University of Heidelberg / University of Helsinki

Quinn Slobodian’s Crack-Up Capitalism (2023) describes how neoliberal logic fractures the global landscape into zones – special economic zones, freeports, and extraterritorial enclaves designed to shield market operations from democratic oversight. These spatial formations enclose, depoliticise, and fragment urban life. In this talk, I argue that contemporary urban fantasy offers an aesthetic counter-model to these neoliberal “crack-ups”, inviting alternative spatial models of collective experience and resistance

I draw on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of “the right to the city,” which highlights the conflict between commodification and collective life in urbans spaces, and David Harvey’s concept of the “spatial fix”, which illuminates how capital resolves crises by reshaping and displacing spatial configurations, often through violent processes of enclosure, displacement, and fragmentation. Urban fantasy responds to these dynamics by foregrounding spatial multiplicity, permeability, and collective agency.

China MiĂ©ville’s writing, especially The City & The City (2009) and UnLunDun (2007), allegorises urban segregation and state-sanctioned invisibility, making the politics of separation visible while highlighting the potential for transgressive connection. N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became (2020) imagines the city as a collective being formed through struggle, defending itself against abstract, homogenising forces. Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest (2009) offers a dreamlike city of desire and memory, evading enclosure through fluidity and intimacy rather than commodified control.

Rather than escaping neoliberal urbanism, these texts challenge its spatial logic. They see the city as a site of diversity and possibility, insisting on the right to produce, inhabit, and reimagine urban space collectively. Urban fantasy becomes a mode of spatial critique – exposing the crack-up logic of the neoliberal fantasy while imagining ways to live otherwise within, across, and against its imposed boundaries.

Christian W. Schneider (he/him) is a lecturer at the International Study Centre (ISZ) at the University of Heidelberg and currently teaches at the University of Helsinki. He has published on urban fantasy, the Gothic and graphic novels. When he is not dealing with such nerdy things academically, he might include them in his tabletop or larp designs. His favourite imaginary city might be any of Italo Calvino’s invisible ones.

Sunday June 29

Plastic Consciousness. On David R. Bunch’s Moderan stories

(10–11, Ramsö)

Giaime Lazzari

Trinity College Dublin

This paper examines David R. Bunch’s neglected masterpiece Moderan (1971, new edition 2018) as a case study in linguistic experimentation within science fiction (SF). While scholarship on SF often privileges conceptual innovation over formal experimentation (as it is often the case in the writings of the late Fredric Jameson), this analysis demonstrates how Bunch’s prose does not merely describe the world of Moderan but actively performs it through language. As Jeff VanderMeer aptly notes in his introduction to the 2018 new edition of the book: ‘nothing quite like the Moderan stories had been written before and nothing like them has been written since’—a singularity that, I argue, stems precisely from Bunch’s revolutionary approach to language itself.

Unlike other SF writers, whose prose styles serve their speculative concepts, Bunch develops a language that embodies the very qualities of mechanised reconfiguration of the world it depicts. Drawing on the work of contemporary French philosopher Catherine Malabou and her concept of plasticity, I aim to explore the ways in which Bunch’s prose simultaneously receives form (shaped as it is by the ‘new-metal consciousness’ of the narrator), gives form (by creating new linguistic structures), and explodes form (by breaking down syntax and signification). Bunch’s approach produces a style that is paradoxically both rigid and malleable — synthetic yet adaptive. Indeed, as I hope to show, the very language of Moderan undergoes the same transformation as its cyborg protagonist and narrator, Stronghold 10.

By analysing Bunch’s linguistic ‘plasticity’, this paper contributes to a necessary reconsideration of SF’s literary possibilities beyond thematic speculation, by demonstrating how language itself can become a site of science-fictional transformation, challenging the field’s tendency to separate form from content.

Giaime Lazzari is a PhD candidate in the Department of French at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), recipient of the Claude and Vincenette Pichois Research Award (2024-2028). His research focuses on language and space in the works of David Bunch, Joanna Russ, Daniel Drode, and Monique Wittig. He previously earned joint Masters’ degree from University of Bologna and UniversitĂ© Paris-Nanterre, with a dissertation on Frank Herbert’s Dune cycle. His professional experience includes serving as Junior Lecturer at UniversitĂ© Paris 8 Vincennes—Saint Denis (2023-2024). He is a member of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA).

Sotakirjallisuuden goottiset ainekset

(11–12, Ramsö)

Markku Soikkeli

Tampere

Sotagotiikkaa on tutkittu yllÀttÀvÀn vÀhÀn. JÀrjestelmÀllisesti aihetta on kÀsitelty vasta 2000-luvulla ja silloinkin varsinaisena tutkimuskohteena on ollut jokin muu kuin gotiikka. Samoin omassa projektissani sotakirjallisuuden historiasta.

Goottiset ainekset sopivat sotakuvauksiin ilmeisistÀ syistÀ. Rajatilakokemuksia kuvataan paitsi elollisen ja elottoman myös fyysisen kivun ja eksistentiaalisen epÀtoivon poikkeuksellisena sekoittumisena.

Tietyt historialliset sodat ovat antaneet aineksia gotiikan perinteeseen. KeskisessÀ Euroopassa kolmikymmenvuotisesta sodasta tuli jo varhain myöhempien sotakokemusten mittapuu. Sota-aihe ja tykkitulen hirviömÀinen voima sopivat 1700-luvun historiallisen gotiikan viehÀtykseen rappiota, kuolemaa ja tuhoavia luonnonvoimia kohtaan. EnsimmÀisessÀ goottilaisessa romaanissa, Horace Walpolen Otranton linnassa (1764) on tunnettu kohtaus, jossa jÀttilÀismÀinen kypÀrÀ tipahtaa raunioihin ilman selityksiÀ. Sotagotiikan kannalta kohtaus ennakoi historiantajun murtavaa muutosta: kÀsittÀmÀttömÀn kokoisia armeijoita, joihin orastavat kansallisvaltiot alistaisivat kansalaisiaan.

Sotagotiikka yleistyi sodan totalisoituessa sotateknologian ja massa-armeijoiden myötĂ€, yleensĂ€ ensimmĂ€isenĂ€ esimerkkinĂ€ kĂ€ytetÀÀn Yhdysvaltain sisĂ€llissotaa.  SisĂ€llissotakirjallisuudessa yksilökokemus oli monesti tĂ€rkeĂ€mpÀÀ kuin autenttinen taistelukuvaus. Esimerkiksi Ambrose Biercen Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891) on sĂ€ilyttĂ€nyt arvonsa sen ansiosta, ettĂ€ Bierce sovelsi  sotakokemuksensa kauhutarinoiksi. Vasta ensimmĂ€isen maailmansodan yhteydessĂ€ yleistyivĂ€t sotakirjallisuuden kauhuromanttiset, usein mustan huumorin sĂ€vyttĂ€mĂ€t goottiset kuvaukset raunioista ja osaksi maisemaa silpoutuneista uhreista.

Myös kaupunkien kauhistuttavuus muuttui maailmansodissa. Toisen maailmansodan lentopommituksissa kaupungit muuttuivat pimeiksi rauniovyöhykkeiksi, metafyysisiksi tiloiksi, jotka olivat omiaan varjomaisille vakoojille. NiissĂ€ ei voinut enÀÀ suunnistaa tuttujen maamerkkien perusteella, koska pommit pyyhkĂ€isivĂ€t paikkoihin liittyvĂ€t muistot. Maailmansodat myös latistivat raunioromantiikan merkityksen kirjallisuudessa. Rauniot eivĂ€t olletkaan enÀÀ merkkejĂ€ vanhan maailman hitaasta hiipumisesta, vaan universaalin koneellisen tuhon tunnuksia. 

Sotagotiikan yksittÀisistÀ motiiveista tÀrkein on aave. Sotamuistelmissa aaveet esiintyvÀt taistelukentÀn oppaina. Trauman esittÀminen aaveen muodossa luo tavan ymmÀrtÀÀ ahdistusta sen sijaan, ettÀ se herÀttÀisi lukijoiden omia ahdistavia sotakokemuksia.

Sodan epÀtodellisuuteen on kÀytetty myös eksotisoivaa kauhukuvastoa kÀsitellessÀ taisteluita kolonisoiduissa maissa. Amerikkalaisessa kulttuurissahan populaariviihteeseen viittaileva sotagotiikka teki paluun Vietnamin sodan myötÀ. Poikkeuksellisille sotakokemuksille on löydetty myöhemminkin vertailukohteita jopa Gozillasta ja Terminatorista.

Dr Markku Soikkeli – I used to work as a teacher and researcher of Finnish literature. My academic papers concerned the tradition of love stories, but I’ve also researched all kinds of speculative fiction. Since 2013 I’ve been working as a free-lance writer, authoring both fictional (sf and fantasy) and non-fictional books. So far I’ve published six introductory books (in Finnish) about genre fiction, including The Handbook of Science Fiction Literature (2015) and The Handbook of Science Fiction Films (2016). My latest genre project concerns history of war literature.

Rounding Errors and Redundant Ghosts: Exploring Alienation and Estrangement in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction

(13–14, Ramsö)

Eero Suoranta

University of Helsinki

In this talk, I introduce my doctoral project on alienation in contemporary Chinese science fiction and highlight some recent preliminary results that are of interest to science fiction studies more generally. First, I offer some general observations on the relevance of alienation to discussions of Chinese society and literature, as well as on the possibilities of exploring alienation through science-fictional estrangement. Next, I provide an analysis of two works from my corpus, “Folding Beijing” (2012) by Hao Jingfang (b. 1984) and “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” (2010) by Xia Jia (b. 1984), both of which center on alienated laborers that are designated as economically “redundant.” With reference to Esko Suoranta’s recent reformulation of the theory of cognitive estrangement in terms of literary affordance, I show how these two works use diegetic estrangement and defamiliarization to direct the attention of the reader towards considering social inequality. In addition, I employ Bo Petterson’s observations on different categories of unreliability (including character and focal) and expositional manipulation in order to examine how these stories portray the relationship of technological development and obsolescence to inequality and redundancy in the workforce. Based on my analysis, I argue that these stories can be read as a challenge to conceptualizations of “redundant” workers as “unfit” or “unskilled,” and that they offer affordances for grappling with complex aspects of Chinese social reality and contemporary capitalism that underlie experiences of alienation in today’s China.

Eero Suoranta is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki as well as a freelance translator, journalist, and literary critic. His publications include ““I hope they really evolve into a different species from us”: Human-Nature Disconnection, Eeriness, and Social Class in Han Song’s “Submarines”” (Fafnir, vol 10, issue 2) and translations of works by Xia Jia, Chen Qiufan, and Lu Xun, and he has been featured as an expert on Chinese literature and philosophy by the Finnish public broadcasting company Yle. He is currently the managing editor of Fafnir.

Keeping Altered Consciousness Weird? Developing a Lexical-Categorical Frequency Model of Altered States in American Science Fiction

(14–15, Ramsö)

Elizabeth Oakes

University of Helsinki

This paper extends my research project that used computational-stylistic methods to analyze styles of altered consciousness in a corpus of 1960s and 1970s American science fiction (sf) novels. This study described stylistic similarities in portrayals of altered consciousness that comprise a lexical-categorical frequency model of altered states. It also demonstrated how three distinct styles of altered consciousness generate three thematizations in dialog with contemporaneous sociocultural issues in ways that encouraged imagining social alternatives to attitudes toward and treatment of mental illness, drug culture and its place (or lack thereof) in society, and potentials for community building.

In this paper, I construct a computational version of this model to identify and describe portrayals of altered consciousness in a corpus of contemporary American sf and compare it to those discovered in the 1960s/70s corpus. Distant reading methods, such as computational lexical category dictionaries and cluster analysis, capture big-picture stylistic features, while the scalar design facilitates seamless transition to close reading methods linking these styles to the production of theme in specific novels. This scalarity allows the study to address how the trope of altered consciousness operates in the sf genre in the 21st century as compared to the 1960s/70s and also to examine linguistic details of how the trope is expressed in these two periods. On the basis of this analysis I argue that how we write about altered consciousness has the potential to open space for social change, inviting readers into a radically different viewpoint whence alternatives can be imagined.

Elizabeth Oakes is a PhD in spe in the English unit at the University of Helsinki. Their dissertation project uses computational-stylistic methods to identify and characterize styles of representing altered consciousness in a corpus of American science fiction novels from the 1960s and 1970s. They demonstrate how the lexical and grammatical aspects of these styles generate themes, and how the themes in turn shape and are shaped by contemporaneous socio-cultural currents. They have published on the subject in Linguistics Vanguard and in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, where they served as Editor-in-Chief from 2022 through 2024.