Publications
We have risen, we’re on the rise, we are here: Interview with Mame Bougouma Diene
Interview with speculative writer and 2023 Caine-prize co-winner Mame Bougouma Diene
23.07.2023
“Safe in Each Other’s Scaly Arms”: Solace, Oddkinship and the Third Position in African Speculative Texts
29.02.2024 Book Chapter, Animals and Science Fiction (ed. Castle, N. and Champion, G). UK: Palgrave Macmillan
In African speculative fiction, there can be found examples of texts that touch on (neo)colonial displacement, uprootedness, and alienation. Through evoking the familiar Other—the nonhuman animal, the hybrid, or even the monster—these texts both portray an (ongoing) shared trauma and express a quiet refusal of narratives of separation and hierarchy. Here I examine how this “uneasy” kinship is critically embraced and operates in the short-story “When the Levees Break” by Edwin Okolo (2022). Second, I explore David Uzochukwu’s “black merfolk” in the photography series Mare Monstrum/Drown in My Magic (2016-ongoing), to illustrate how what I am calling the third position is assumed. The third position can be described as a deliberate, resilient, and persistent process of place-making, creating a home for the displaced with both the nonhuman, the human, and the Land itself. Born out of exclusion and dehumanization, the third position then takes on a life of its own, creating a specific, historicized way of coming to what Joan Gordon calls the amborg gaze. Finally, I discuss how both these texts keep the promise of the animal, insisting on expansion, utopian spark, and creating zones of possibilities.
Føling i Fjæra
15.10.2022 Klassekampen
For noen kan havet bety frihet og eventyr. For andre minner det om historiske traumer.
Fantasien vil redde kloden
10.09.2022 Klassekampen
Du vet at det er krise når politikere og næringslivstopper begynner å lese science fiction.
Kua mi, jeg takker deg
23.06.2022 Klassekampen
Verden er innviklet, og vi kan ikke temme den, skriver Marta Tveit.
Makeshift Modernity
13.07.2021 Africa is a country
The rise of African Speculative Fiction and other exciting cultural production indicates that modernity is not an exercise in “catching up” with Europe, but an entirely new condition.
Fairytale’s end
14.09.2021 CoFUTURES blog/ Klassekampen
An unresolved nostalgia haunts new exhibition remembering the end of oil and gas-excavation in Norway.
Evolution of the norwegian speculative hero
16.04.2022 ScienceNorway.no
How has the Norwegian fantastic hero changed over time, and what can this tell us about ourselves?
En Fremmed i en fremmeds verden
July, 2022 Morgenbladet
Jeg kan kjenne meg igjen i rollen som begeistret fremmed i eget land. Kanskje romantisk fantasy er på vei tilbake.
Notat om undringslitteratur
26.02.2022, Klassekampen
Vi mangler en egen sjanger for bøker som blander det overnaturlige og det virkelighetsnære.
Der vår klimafiksjon bærer preg av melankoli, har de afrikanske tekstene en sint og seig energi,…
25.06.2020 Morgenbladet
Klima-angsten skaper et behov. Et behov for å bearbeide det som skjer nå, og det vi frykter vil skje i fremtiden. Science-fiction er derfor en spennende sjanger, fordi den lar oss utforske nifse og mulige fremtider i trygge laboratorium-aktige omgivelser. Derfor er det ikke overraskende at det har vokst frem en ny undersjanger innenfor science fiction.
I Lyset fra Mars
Morgenbladet may, 2022
Anmeldelse: “En Strek gjennom tyngdekraften”
