Maria Lindgren Leavenworth

The Imagined Arctic in Speculative Fiction explores the ways in which the Arctic is imagined and what function it is made to serve in a selection of speculative fictions: non-mimetic works that start from the implied question "What if?" Spanning slightly more than two centuries of speculative fiction, from the starting point in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein to contemporary works that engage with the vast ramifications of anthropogenic climate change, analyses demonstrate how Arctic discourses are supported or subverted and how new Arctics are added to the textual tradition. To illuminate wider lines of inquiry informing the way the world is envisioned, humanity’s place and function in it, and more-than-human entanglements, analyses focus on the function of the actual Arctic and how this function impacts and is impacted by speculative elements. With effects of climate change training the global eye on the Arctic, and as debates around future northern cultural, economic and environmental sustainability intensify, there is a need for a deepened understanding of the discourses that have constructed and are constructing the Arctic. A careful mapping and serious consideration of both past and contemporary speculative visions thus illuminate the role the Arctic has played and may come to play in a diverse set of practices and fields.

The Imagined Arctic in Speculative Fiction explores the ways in which the Arctic is imagined and what function it is made to serve in a selection of speculative fictions: non-mimetic works that start from the implied question "What if?" Spanning slightly more than two centuries of speculative fiction, from the starting point in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein to contemporary works that engage with the vast ramifications of anthropogenic climate change, analyses demonstrate how Arctic discourses are supported or subverted and how new Arctics are added to the textual tradition. To illuminate wider lines of inquiry informing the way the world is envisioned, humanity’s place and function in it, and more-than-human entanglements, analyses focus on the function of the actual Arctic and how this function impacts and is impacted by speculative elements. With effects of climate change training the global eye on the Arctic, and as debates around future northern cultural, economic and environmental sustainability intensify, there is a need for a deepened understanding of the discourses that have constructed and are constructing the Arctic. A careful mapping and serious consideration of both past and contemporary speculative visions thus illuminate the role the Arctic has played and may come to play in a diverse set of practices and fields.

Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries have sparked intense fan activity and generated a large quantity of fan fiction: stories which test the limits of an already existing fictional work and explore gaps and discrepancies within it. Working from the idea that texts constitute archives, expanded and altered by each addition, close readings of a selection of fanfics illustrate particular transformative practices in the online environment. The central figure of the vampire is read through the lens of fanfic authors' contributions to the archives, particularly regarding how figuratively or literally refanged versions of the trope are used to subvert norms established in the source texts concerning depictions of sexuality, sexual practices, and monstrosity. Complex relationships between authorial power and subversion, between mainstream messages and individual interpretations, are examined through fanfic analyses, the findings contributing to discussions about contemporary literary creativity.

The second journey is a contemporary journey made in the footsteps of an earlier traveller. The original travelogue, the first journey, functions as a map which guides second travellers not only to their geographical destinations, but also to a sense of authenticity. Although based on ideas of emulation, reiteration and cyclicality, the second journey transforms places which are already figuratively and literally mapped into new landscapes. This study situates second journeys in the textual and conceptual history preceding them, with focus on issues of authenticity, originality and intertextuality. Three case studies illustrate variations on the form. The first contains an analysis of a scientific second journey: Robert Swan and Roger Mear's In the Footsteps of Scott. This project takes the second travellers along Robert Falcon Scott's route through Antarctica to the South Pole. The second case study concerns female travellers in West Africa: Mary Kingsley travelling at the end of the nineteenth century and Caroline Alexander emulating the journey a century later in One Dry Season. The third variation on the second journey, a biographical project, is exemplified by Nicholas Rankin's Dead Man's Chest. Rankin travels in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson through Europe, North America and to the Pacific Islands. The Second Journey: Travelling in Literary Footsteps sheds light on a largely neglected subgenre of travel literature. It is aimed towards readers with an interest in travel writing, in postmodern developments of the genre, and in how the central issues of originality and authenticity are negotiated in contemporary travel texts.

En geografisk plats är ofta en utgångspunkt då människan försöker att sortera och förstå sin verklighet. Vid sidan av språkliga konstruktioner som här och där och vi och dem är kulturella och estetiska markörer centrala för skapandet och vidmakthållandet av imaginära och faktiska gränser. Reseskildringar, museer, konstverk, byggnader eller romaner förhåller sig dels till platsen där de existerar, utförs eller skrivs, dels till platsen de säger något om. Representationerna kan sedan påverka besökares eller läsares bilder av ett specifikt geografiskt område. De estetiska uttrycken spelar därför en avgörande roll för hur olika områden konstrueras. Texterna i denna volym är skrivna av forskare från Umeå, Helsingfors, Uppsala och Göteborg. De förhåller sig alla till det övergripande temat hur en regional identitet skapas inifrån eller tillskrivs utifrån. Författarna diskuterar bland annat hur estetiska värden aktivt används i marknadsföring av platser, det ständigt pågående utbytet mellan det globala och det regionala, samt hur olika författarskap bidragit till att skapa en regional identitet. Regionernas bilder vänder sig till läsare som vill möta en problematiserad bild av hur estetiska värden bidragit till bilden av den geografiska verklighet vi befinner oss i.