https://fafnir.journal.fi/issue/feedFafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research2025-01-21T23:11:58+02:00Fafnir Editors-in-Chiefsubmissions@finfar.orgOpen Journal Systems<p><em><span lang="EN-US">Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research</span></em><span lang="EN-US"> is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary academic journal published online twice yearly by the <a href="http://finfar.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research</a> (Suomen science fiction- ja fantasiatutkimuksen seura ry) beginning in 2014. </span></p>https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155817Conference Report: SFRA 20242025-01-08T11:52:30+02:00Essi Varis<p>Report on the SFRA 2024: Transitions conference.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Essi Varishttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155825Interview with Nicolas Lietzau2025-01-08T12:08:58+02:00Evgenia AmeyGarrett Moore<p>Interview with game developer and writer Nicolas Lietzau.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Evgenia Amey, Garrett “Wereyoi” Moorehttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155865Technonaturalist Speculative Fiction and Literary Affordance2025-01-08T18:26:11+02:00Esko Suoranta<p><em>Lectio praecursoria</em>: Technonaturalist Speculative Fiction and Literary Affordance</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Esko Suorantahttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156057Call for Papers: Fafnir 2/20252025-01-10T15:49:59+02:00Fafnir<p>Call for papers for <em>Fafnir</em> issue 2/2025</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Fafnirhttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156305Science Fiction, The Future, and Now2025-01-17T20:09:29+02:00Susan Mandala<p>Prefatory by Susan Mandala.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Susan Mandalahttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155595Review of Space(s) of the Fantastic – A 21st Century Manifesto2025-01-05T11:00:04+02:00Karl Bell<p>Punter, David and C. Bruna Mancini, editors. <em data-stringify-type="italic">Space(s) of the Fantastic – A 21st Century Manifesto</em>. Routledge Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780367681692.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Karl Bellhttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155596Review of Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction2025-01-05T11:10:13+02:00Jeremy Brett<p>Yoshinaga, Ida, Sean Guynes, and Gerry Canavan, editors. <em>Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction</em>. The MIT Press, 2022. ISBN: 978-0262543941.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Jeremy Bretthttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155597Review of The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction2025-01-05T11:20:44+02:00Ananya BuragohainLakshminath Kagyung<p>Barbini, Francesca T., editor. <em>The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction</em>. Luna Press Publishing, 2018. ISBN- 978-1-911143-51-2.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Ananya Buragohain, Lakshminath Kagyunghttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155598Review of The Rise of the Cyberzines2025-01-05T11:34:12+02:00Sabina Fazli<p>Ashley, Mike. <em>The Rise of the Cyberzines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1991 to 2020</em>. The History of the Science-Fiction Magazines Volume V. 2022. 444 pages. ISBN 978-180085648.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Sabina Fazlihttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155738Review of Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss: Steps on the Developmental Journey2025-01-07T16:26:59+02:00Carol Franko<p>Rosegrant, John. <em>Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss: Steps on the Developmental Journey</em>. The Kent State UP, 2022. ISBN 978-1-60635-435-3.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Carol Frankohttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155599Review of Science Fiction Cinema in the Twenty-First Century2025-01-05T11:46:20+02:00Aino-Kaisa Koistinen<p>Gómez-Muñoz, Pablo. <em>Science Fiction Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Futures, Cosmopolitan Concerns</em>. Routledge, 2023. ISBN: 9780367759063.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Aino-Kaisa Koistinenhttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155600Review of Gendered Defenders: Marvel’s Heroines in Transmedia Spaces2025-01-05T12:06:25+02:00C. Palmer-Patel<p>Carr, Bryan J. and Meta G. Carstarphen, editors. <em>Gendered Defenders: Marvel’s Heroines in Transmedia Spaces</em>. Ohio State University Press, 2022. ISBN: 978-0-8142-5852-1.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 C. Palmer-Patelhttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155813Review of Vision, Technology, and Subjectivity in Mexican Cyberpunk Literature2025-01-08T11:33:49+02:00Michael Pitts<p>Tobin, Stephen C. <em>Vision, Technology, and Subjectivity in Mexican Cyberpunk Literature</em>. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. ISBN 978-3-031-31155-0.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Michael Pittshttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155601Review of Ancient Greece and Rome in Modern Science Fiction: Amazing Antiquity2025-01-05T12:14:35+02:00Noah Slowik<p>Clare, Ross. <em>Ancient Greece and Rome in Modern Science Fiction: Amazing Antiquity</em>. Liverpool UP, 2022. ISBN: 978-180085-631-8.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Noah Slowikhttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155605Review of Self-Reflective Fiction and 4E Cognition2025-01-05T16:22:23+02:00Essi Varis<p>Polvinen, Merja. <em>Self-Reflective Fiction and 4E Cognition</em>. Routledge, 2023. ISBN 9781032263748.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Essi Varishttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155824From Middle-earth to Duckburg, Worlds of Fantastic Mythmaking and Mythbreaking2025-01-08T12:05:07+02:00Jyrki Korpua<p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-US">Guest of Honour Speech, Finncon 2024. Jyväskylä, Finland. July 6, 2024. Keynote to Finncon Academic Track: “Worlds”.</span></p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Jyrki Korpuahttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155861Ant Similes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – an Analysis of Literary Technologies2025-01-08T18:21:27+02:00Juha-Pekka Alarauhio<p>This article investigates the use of similes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing as literary-technological design that partakes in traditional means for narrative meaning-making repurposed for his fantasy in <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>. I argue that by focusing intensely on these features in Tolkien’s textual design, it is possible to support ongoing scholarship on the literary influences and sources of Tolkien’s legendarium with a less directly comparative method. This approach can illuminate, on one hand, Tolkien’s strategies in deploying traditional literary technologies, and on the other hand, the purposive redesign of these technologies for the specific storytelling needs of his fantasy writing. My analysis focuses on a series of similes in <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> that compare orcs to ants, showing that the similes are applied with a consistent overall strategy that highlights an important thematic strand in Tolkien’s legendarium. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how the adaptive use of similes exemplifies the idea of purposive design. On a more interpretive level, I explore the functional envelope of the simile as a narrative technology, and its implications for meaning-making within Tolkien’s storyworld and beyond.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Juha-Pekka Alarauhiohttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155675SF Estrangement in Literary Translation2025-01-06T20:29:52+02:00Suvi Korpi<p>This study analyzes the translation of neologies in the literary translation of the science fiction (SF) novel <em>Dune</em> (1965). As one of the most important linguistic elements in SF, neologies contribute to the worldbuilding of SF and create the estrangement from reality that is characteristic of the SF genre. Evaluating the translation of neologies is hence used as a tool to evaluate the transfer of the source text’s (ST) estranging properties to the target text (TT). When the ST’s neological estrangement is retained as a genre-specific feature of SF in the TT, the ST estrangement becomes accessible also for the TT reader. The study reveals that the translation has predominantly retained neologies, thus retaining the neological estrangement of the ST in the TT. The material of the study consists of the neologies in Frank Herbert’s <em>Dune</em> and its Finnish translation <em>Dyyni</em> (2021 [1982]), which were analyzed to determine whether they retain or recreate SF estrangement.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Suvi Korpihttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156064Ice and Ecotrauma in Isaac Asimov’s “The Martian Way”2025-01-10T16:01:51+02:00Faeze Rezaii<p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-US">This article examines Isaac Asimov’s novella “The Martian Way” (1952) as a work that exposes the entanglements of the trauma of the environment with the ecological trauma of the humans. The narrative re-envisions the Cold War energy crisis for a future era and visualizes the pursuit of hydropower as the appropriation of one of the ice fragments of Saturn’s rings. In doing so, it problematizes space mining and the traumatization of the environment. I examine the infliction of varied forms of violence on ice in “The Martian Way” and underscore human blindness to nonliving or inorganic matter. This analysis of the novella also focuses on how human characters suffer the consequences of their own violence on the environment they transform. Mobilizing the concept of ecotrauma, I demonstrate that the ice in “The Martian’s Way” agentially responds to anthropogenic violence. This article contributes to ecocritical discussions on the ethical mattering of inorganic matter such as water. My analysis encourages thinking beyond a singular species and necessitates a critical environmental perspective that includes nonliving entities within the domain of ethical mattering and thus moves beyond life-centered environmental worldviews.</span></p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Faeze Rezaiihttps://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/155979Editorial 1–2/20242025-01-10T13:08:24+02:00Elizabeth OakesMerve TaburElise KraatilaJari Käkelä<p>Editorial for issue 1–2/2024.</p>2025-01-21T00:00:00+02:00Copyright (c) 2024 Elizabeth Oakes, Merve Tabur, Elise Kraatila, Jari Käkelä