Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research
https://fafnir.journal.fi/
<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>Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research (Suomen science fiction- ja fantasiatutkimuksen seura ry)en-USFafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research2342-2009<p><span lang="EN-US">Content in <em>Fafnir </em>is licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported License</a> (CC BY-NC 3.0).</span></p> <p><span lang="EN">Beginning in November 2019, authors retain full copyright without restrictions. By publishing with <em>Fafnir</em>, authors grant a non-exclusive license to <em>Fafnir</em> to distribute the publisher’s version of the work, and give <em>Fafnir</em> permission to grant reprint and/or translation requests in accordance with our open-access policy and our Creative Commons license.</span></p> <p><span lang="EN">Prior to November 2019, copyright for all published material is held by <em>Fafnir</em>, but authors have full permission to use their work as they wish (i.e., self-archiving, reprint requests, using for other projects, etc.).</span></p> <p><span lang="EN">In both cases, re-use or re-posting of material published in <em>Fafnir </em>must acknowledge original publication and include a link to the publisher version.</span></p>“Attuned to Loss”
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157116
<p>This article analyzes two contemporary novels that reflect on the devastation of the Earth: <em>Bewilderment</em> by American author Richard Powers (2021) and <em>The Moonday Letters</em> (2020) by Finnish author Emmi Itäranta, arguing that both novels invite readers to engage with solastalgia – a distress caused by witnessing environmental changes. The evocation of solastalgia (as an environmentally-attuning readerly affect) is discussed by employing James Phelan’s rhetorical theory of narrative, particularly his and Matthew Clark’s model of three narrative components. Accounting for both content and form, the threefold analysis touches on the many similarities of the seemingly different novels: their Earth-centeredness, the theme of loss and how it is rescaled from personal to environmental, as well as storyworld-internal worldbuilding that repeatedly interrupts the progression of narratives. This reading contributes to discussions about the functioning and functions of fiction in the Anthropocene.</p>Radvilė Musteikytė
Copyright (c) 2025 Radvilė Musteikytė
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202517–3117–31Ecocritical Perspectives in Naomi Novik’s Uprooted
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157185
<p>Eco-fantasy critics often celebrate what Gry Ulstein calls fantasy’s “intrinsic exploratory potential for ecocritical ideas.” It is, however, equally important to acknowledge the possibility of failure that a rhetoric of potentiality necessarily implies. As Ulstein admits, fantasy can reinscribe anthropocentric messaging just as easily as it presents ecological perspectives. Naomi Novik’s environmental fantasy novel <em>Uprooted</em> (2015) offers an example of a text that incorporates elements from both ends of fantasy’s spectrum of ecocritical potential. Specifically, it dramatizes a shift in perspective from an initially negative, human-centered depiction of nonhuman environments toward a vision in which humanity appears considerably less central or important. Capitalizing on fantasy’s capacity to focalize nonhuman points of view, <em>Uprooted</em> evokes philosopher Timothy Morton’s ecological concept of coexistentialism, a key principle of which maintains that within the course of negotiating relations between human and nonhuman beings, sometimes “the only thing to do is to treat beings as people, even if they turn out not to be.” Anthropomorphic gestures of this kind critically challenge assumptions of human exceptionalism and elevate the value of nonhuman life-forms, which in Novik’s novel includes the “heart trees” and magical creatures of the ever-expanding dark forest, whose reverse reclamation of human territories provides the principal antagonistic force of the narrative.</p>Peter Melville
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter Melville
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202532–4432–44Review of Hot Equations: Science, Fantasy, and the Radical Imagination on a Troubled Planet
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/159818
<p>Cohn, Jesse S. <em>Hot Equations: Science, Fantasy, and the Radical Imagination on a Troubled Planet</em>. University Press of Mississippi, 2024.</p>Paula García-Rodríguez
Copyright (c) 2025 Paula García-Rodríguez
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202567–7167–71Review of Animals and Science Fiction
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160595
<p>Castle, Nora, and Giulia Champion, editors. <em>Animals and Science Fiction</em>. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. ISBN: 978-3031416972.</p>M.E. Boothby
Copyright (c) 2025 Megan Boothby
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202572–7572–75Review of Chinese Science Fiction: Concepts, Forms, and Histories
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/161319
<p>Song, Mingwei, Nathaniel Isaacson, and Hua Li, editors. <em>Chinese Science Fiction: Concepts, Forms, and Histories</em>. Springer International Publishing: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. ISBN: 9783031535413.</p>Zichuan Gan
Copyright (c) 2025 Zichuan Gan
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202576–7976–79Review of Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberated Futures in Black Women’s Fiction
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157598
<p>Jones, Cassandra L. <em>Black Speculative Feminisms: Memory and Liberated Futures in Black Women’s Fiction</em>. Ohio. Ohio State UP 2024.</p>Patricia Coloma Peñate
Copyright (c) 2025 Patricia Coloma Peñate
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202580–8380–83Review of Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157055
<p>Carroll, Jordan S. <em>Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right</em>. Forerunners: Ideas First. University of Minnesota Press. 2024. ISBN: 9781517917081</p>Jaime Segura San Miguel
Copyright (c) 2025 Jaime Segura San Miguel
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202584–8784–87Review of Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction: Reframing Myths of Adolescent Girlhood
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156598
<p>Phillips, Leah. <em>Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction: Reframing Myths of Adolescent Girlhood</em>. Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2023.</p>Maryem Ben Salem
Copyright (c) 2025 Maryem Ben Salem
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202588–9188–91Review of The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160024
<p>Sherwood, Will, and Julian Eilmann (eds). <em>The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien</em>. Zurich and Jena, 2024 (Cormarë Series 51). ISBN 978-3-905703-51-1.</p>Paula Lobato Díez
Copyright (c) 2025 Paula Lobato Díez
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202592–9592–95Review of J. R. R. Tolkien's Utopianism and the Classics
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156572
<p>Williams, Hamish.<em> J.R.R. Tolkien’s Utopianism and the Classics</em>. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. ISBN 978–1350241466.</p>James Hamby
Copyright (c) 2025 James Hamby
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202596–10096–100Review of Celebrating Tolkien’s Legacy
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160753
<p>Bunting, Nancy, Seamus Hamill-Keays, and Toby Widdicombe. <em>Celebrating Tolkien’s Legacy</em>. Walking Tree Publishers, 2024. ISBN: 978-3-905703-52-8.</p>Kristine Larsen
Copyright (c) 2025 Kristine Larsen
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025101–105101–105Review of Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Cartographies
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/161360
<p>Behrooz, Anahit.<em> Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Cartographies</em>. Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. ISBN: 9781350290808.</p>David Brewer
Copyright (c) 2025 David Brewer
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025106–110106–110Review of Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/159797
<p>Fimi, Dimitra, and Alistair J.P. Sims, editors. <em>Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy</em>. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023. ISBN 9781350349995.</p>Robert Finnigan
Copyright (c) 2025 Rob Finnigan
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025111–113111–113Review of Identifying Self through Society: A Socio-psychological Perspective of A Song of Ice and Fire
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156704
<p>Dhantal, Smita. <em>Identifying Self through Society: A Socio-psychological Perspective of A Song of Ice and Fire</em>. Christ University, 2024.</p>Nicholas Wanberg
Copyright (c) 2025 Nicholas Wanberg
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025114–115114–115Review of The Human Race Vs. the Minorities: Racism, anti-racism, and intelligent non-humans in the world architecture of speculative fiction
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156641
<p>Wanberg, Nicholas. <em>The Human Race Vs. the Minorities: Racism, anti-racism, and intelligent non-humans in the world architecture of speculative fiction</em>. Tampere University, 2023. ISBN 978-952-03-2949-5.</p>Smita Dhantal
Copyright (c) 2025 Smita Dhantal
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025116–117116–117Satire in Egyptian Speculative Fiction
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163381
Emad El-Din Aysha
Copyright (c) 2025 Emad El-Din Aysha
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202545–5945–59 Hengellisyys J. R. R. Tolkienin fantasiafiktiossa
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/162745
Jyrki Korpua
Copyright (c) 2025 Jyrki Korpua
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/202560–6660–66Call for Papers: Fafnir 1/2026
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163463
<p>Call for papers for <em>Fafnir</em> issue 1/2026</p>Fafnir
Copyright (c) 2025 Fafnir
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/2025118118The Cultural Work of Fantasy in the Anthropocene
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163278
Marek Oziewicz
Copyright (c) 2025 Marek Oziewicz
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/20258–168–16Editorial 1/2025
https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163408
Merve TaburElise KraatilaJessica NorledgeJari Käkelä
Copyright (c) 2025 Merve Tabur; Elise Kraatila, Jessica Norledge, Jari Käkelä
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2025-07-302025-07-30121/20255–75–7