Climate Fiction in Nordic Landscapes

Abstract

This article analyses two climate fictions set in Nordic landscapes: Jostein Gaarder’s The World According to Anna (2015) and Memories of Water (2014) by Emma Itäranta, both classed as young adult fiction. The article draws on ecocritical perspectives to examine how the developing conventions of cli-fi play out in a Nordic setting. It calls attention in particular to the importance of the cabin as a heterotopian space in Gaarder’s novel, which is set in Norway, and to Itäranta’s reliance on the green topos and the sanctuary topos to articulate her vision of climate change in a rural Finnish landscape.