Press release

Stories reflect and shape collective feelings of fear and safety

Published on 21.6.2021

Tampere University

When emotional experiences are conveyed in the media or otherwise expressed, they trigger interactions and actions that can have far-reaching consequences. Examining narratives of emotional experiences is important so that we can understand global threats such as the climate crisis, terrorism and pandemics, and contemplate ways to deal with them.

A recent bilingual edited volume, Narratives of Fear and Safety, examines the cultural meanings of fear and safety in literature and other media. The articles bring forth new, cross-cultural interpretations on the topic through examining what kinds of genre-specific means of world-making narratives use to express these two affectivities.

Several of the articles deal with apocalyptic and dystopian narratives, where common elements include environmental disasters and authoritarian societies. These currently very popular genres do not only deal with future threats but also suggest alternative ways of being, and new hopes in the form of political resistance.

The authors of this volume work in European, American and Australian universities. The editors are scholars from the universities of Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Tartu. The articles are based on the presentations of the conference of the European Society of Comparative Literature (ESCL) held in Helsinki in 2017.

Narratives of fear and safety is an Open Access book. It is available on Tampere University institutional repository Trepo. It will also be available on OAPEN Library portal and on the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

Kaukiainen, Kurikka, Mäkelä, Nykänen, Nyqvist, Raipola, Riippa & Samola (eds): Narratives of fear and safety. Tampere University Press, 2020. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-359-014-4

More information:
Hanna Samola
hanna.samola [at] tuni.fi

tup [at] tuni.fi
www.tuni.fi/tup