Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, Volume 2, Issue 2, pages 5-6.
Jyrki Korpua, Hanna-Riikka Roine & Päivi Väätänen
Editorial 2/2015
Come we to the summer, to the summer we will come,
For the woods are full of bluebells and the hedges full of bloom,
And the crow is on the oak a-building of her nest,
And love is burning diamonds in my true lover’s breast;
She sits beneath the whitethorn a-plaiting of her hair,
And I will to my true lover with a fond request repair;
I will look upon her face, I will in her beauty rest,
And lay my aching weariness upon her lovely breast.
(John Clare, “Summer”)
As English Romantic poet John Clare so elegantly puts it in his poem, summer is here! It is also the time for the brand new issue of Fafnir to come and delight you, our reader – straight from the land of the midnight sun.
We have been lucky to have been offered articles and other texts by hard-working researchers of speculative fiction; therefore, interesting texts and topics are abundant in the second issue of this year. We present you two research articles, an introductory lecture (lectio praecursoria) of a Finnish doctoral defence, a conference report, and two book reviews.
In her article “Writing oneself into someone else’s story – experiments with identity and speculative life writing in Twilight fan fiction,” Sanna Lehtonen examines female protagonists in self-insertion fan fiction texts based on Stephenie Meyer’s hugely popular Twilight novels and relates these representations to reader’s comments about the stories. Lehtonen demonstrates that self-insertion fan fiction not only allows creative experimentation with gendered identities, but is also conditioned by hegemonic gendered discourses and the norms of the particular online community.
Julia Nikiel’s article “Drowning in Rikki Ducornet’s The Fountains of Neptune” is a case study of Rikki Ducornet’s fantastic novel. In her discussion, Nikiel concentrates on the central role of water in the novel’s poetics, its structure, and figurative language. Nikiel shows that in the novel, water is both a thematic element and a structuring principle.
We are also proud to present the first lectio praecursoria in the history of Fafnir, one by Aino-Kaisa Koistinen investigating the so called human question in science fiction television. It is based on Koistinen’s doctoral dissertation titled The Human Question in Science Fiction Television: (Re)Imagining Humanity in Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman, and V, which she defended on April 11, 2015 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
The 36th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) was held in Orlando, Florida on March 18-22, 2015. In her report of the conference, “The Dark Side of the Sheep, and Other Animals,” Kaisa Kortekallio puts us on a ringside seat for interesting and thought-provoking discussions they had at the conference. Year after year, ICFA proves to be a conference which truly celebrates the diversity of the speculative fiction and its research.
In addition to the articles, lectio praecursoria, and conference report, this issue includes two literary reviews in two Nordic languages. In our Finnish review, Mika Loponen discusses Mahdollinen kirja, the conference proceedings of KUTU seminar, the 15th conference of cultural studies at the University of Oulu. In our first text written in Swedish, Tommy Kuusela reviews Marian Warner’s Once Upon a Time. A Short History of Fairy Tale, which explores a multitude of tales through the ages and their different manifestations on the page, the stage, and the screen. Finally, in the end of the journal, you will find a call for papers for our issue 4/2015.
Our next issue is scheduled for September 2015. In the meantime, Fafnir wishes our readers a warm and relaxing summer (but gentler in its breeze than a dragon’s flame)!