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> en-US <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> editorsinchief@finfar.org (Fafnir Editors-in-Chief) eero.suoranta@helsinki.fi (Eero Suoranta) Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:34:23 +0300 OJS 3.2.1.4 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 “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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157116 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Ecocritical 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157185 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/159818 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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> Megan Boothby Copyright (c) 2025 Megan Boothby https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160595 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/161319 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157598 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/157055 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156598 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160024 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156572 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/160753 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/161360 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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> Rob Finnigan Copyright (c) 2025 Rob Finnigan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/159797 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156704 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Review 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/156641 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Satire in Egyptian Speculative Fiction https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163381 Emad El-Din Aysha Copyright (c) 2025 Emad El-Din Aysha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163381 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Hengellisyys J. R. R. Tolkienin fantasiafiktiossa https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/162745 Jyrki Korpua Copyright (c) 2025 Jyrki Korpua https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/162745 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Call 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 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163463 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 The Cultural Work of Fantasy in the Anthropocene https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163278 Marek Oziewicz Copyright (c) 2025 Marek Oziewicz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163278 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300 Editorial 1/2025 https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163408 Merve Tabur, Elise Kraatila, Jessica Norledge, Jari Käkelä Copyright (c) 2025 Merve Tabur; Elise Kraatila, Jessica Norledge, Jari Käkelä https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ https://fafnir.journal.fi/article/view/163408 Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0300