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Paper short abstract

The presentation studies environmental relationship depicted through the archipelago and waterways in a crime fiction case study. I ask, how the narrative challenges marginalization and presents the inhabitants of outermost regions as heroes of their own lives rather than bystanders.

Paper long abstract

In my presentation, I examine the relationships with nature and the environment that fictional representations reveal about so called heartlands. I read Finnish author Joona Keskitalo's crime novel Saari, joka upposi ("The Island That Sank"), part of the Takamailla (“On the Backcountry") series, by using a method that combines ecocritical literary study and environmental aesthetics. I explore, how the fictional environment narrated through archipelago and waterways actively shapes perceptions of nature and people, who live outside cities and town centers. I ask, how the narrative challenges marginalization and presents the inhabitants of the outermost regions as heroes of their own lives rather than bystanders. Furthermore, how do world events and official decisions affect to ways how people live in environments located somehow marginalized areas? My presentation is part of a Finnish multidisciplinary research project that takes an approach to studying how the heartlands are presented, defined, and imagined in different eras and from different perspectives. Through various narratives, research group examines who creates the current and future cultural heritage of the heartlands and how cultural heritage lives and changes in the everyday life of communities.