2023

Spring 2023: Narrative Studies Seminar

9.1.2023

 

5.–6.7. Education for the Planet: Building Universal Climate Literacy with Children’s Literature and Media

Tampere University, Main building (Kalevantie 4) room A06
July 5–6, 2023

Education for the Planet:
Building Universal Climate Literacy with Children’s Literature and Media

Professional development workshop organized by Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies in partnership with the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA

The climate emergency presents us with an existential challenge, in which business-as-usual ways of living our lives and doing our work amount to complicity with the destruction of our planetary home. How do we take a stand? How do we make a difference, especially in our professional capacities? This two-day workshop will address these questions for teachers, academics, and other educators who work with young people. Led by Marek Oziewicz, Director of the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, the workshop will help you understand why climate change and the Anthropocene are primarily challenges to our story systems. You will watch two films, read a couple of picturebooks, explore Finnish ecofiction, and participate in discussions about how stories model climate literacy practices and lifestyles. You will learn about climate literacy as a broader competence that includes the knowledge of facts and numbers but centers on developing attitudes, values, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to respect our planetary home. You will learn about the work of the Center for Climate Literacy and about opportunities to use its resources in your teaching and research.

The workshop is open to anyone interested in sharing transformational children’s stories with their families and friends, but it will be of special value to teachers and educators. It will help you appreciate why literature, film, and other narrative media for young audiences are the best technology for social transformation and why sharing insights about these stories is the best strategy for accelerating a transition to an ecological civilization.

Note that the time has changed: This workshop will be offered in an in-person format, between 9:00 and 12:00. It will consist of two 3-hour sessions on July 5-6.

Number of participants: 20-25

Register through this form (click here)

 

15.–17.6. Narrative Matters 2023 -conference

Instrumental Narratives: Narrative Studies and the Storytelling Boom

The conference positions narrative scholars in the midst of the storytelling boom. Everyone is urged to share their story today, from consumers to multinational corporations, from private citizens to nation states. Storytelling consultants are thriving in today’s storytelling economy, but where are narrative scholars? Do the professional analyzers and theorizers of narrative have a say in the current storytelling boom? How to engage in a societal dialogue and debate as a narrative scholar?

Featured topics:

storytelling boom and its social relevance
novel ways of storytelling today
emergent methods, ideas, and issues in narrative studies

 

More details on Narrative Matters 2023 website

 

23.5. MITÄ JOS? – MONITIETEINEN SPEKULAATIOTYÖPAJA

Tiistai 23.5. klo 10.15–15.30
Pinni B:n Olkkari (1029–30)

 

Erilaisten ”mitä jos?” -skenaarioiden rakentaminen, mahdollisten tulevaisuuksien ennakoiminen ja vaihtoehtoisten todellisuuksien kuvittelu – sanalla sanoen spekulaatio – kuuluu paitsi fiktion, myös tieteen ja tiedeviestinnän tiedolliseen ja kerronnalliseen keinovalikoimaan. Tänä päivänä elämme monin tavoin epävarmassa maailmassa, ja vaikka epävarmuus on pelottavaa, se toimii myös hedelmällisenä kasvualustana uudenlaisille, ristiriitaisille ja kilpailevillekin kuvitelmille. Erilaiset vaihtoehdot ovat jatkuvasti ilmassa, ja niihin kätkeytyy sekä uhkia että mahdollisuuksia niin yksilöiden kuin yhteiskuntienkin näkökulmasta.

Mutta mistä oikeastaan puhumme, kun puhumme spekulaatiosta, ja mitä käytännössä teemme, kun spekuloimme? Millaista tiedonintressiä spekulaatio palvelee, ja miten se suhteutuu kuvittelun, ennakoinnin ja hypoteesin kaltaisiin lähikäsitteisiin? Mikä on spekulaation suhde yhtäältä fiktioon, toisaalta yhteiskunnalliseen tulevaisuuden suunnitteluun? Miten kertomus ja keskustelu mahdollistavat spekulaatiota, ja missä kulkevat niiden rajat?

Tutkimuskeskus Narraressa 23.5.2023 klo 10.15–15.30 järjestettävässä monitieteisessä työpajassa spekulaation käsitettä ja käytänteitä lähestytään paitsi teoreettisesta näkökulmasta, myös vuorovaikutteisilla spekulaatioharjoitteilla. Paikkana on Pinni B:n Olkkari (1029–30). Työpajan tavoitteena on tuoda yhteen eri alojen tutkijoita rakentamaan yhdessä syvempää ymmärrystä siitä, mitä spekulaatio voi olla sekä luoda vapaa leikillinen tila spekulaation yhteiseen harjoittamiseen. Päivän lopuksi spekuloimme, mitä muuta annettavaa spekulaatiolla voisi olla kotimaiselle tutkimuskentälle: kiinnostaisiko spekulaatiosymposiumi, poikkitieteellisen yhteisjulkaisun ideointi tai jopa spekulaatiotutkimuksen verkoston perustaminen?

Työpajapäivä alkaa lyhyillä teoreettisilla alustuksilla, jotka johdattelevat pohtimaan, mitä spekulaatio merkitsee eri tieteenaloilla ja miten sitä voisi lähestyä monitieteisen kertomuksentutkimuksen näkökulmasta. Tämän jälkeen otamme konkreettisempaa tuntumaa spekulaatioon kognitiivisena, tiedollisena ja sosiaalisena toimintana tekemällä vaihtoehtoisia tapahtumakulkuja hahmottelevan kuvitteluharjoituksen. Työpajan ohjelman päättää eläytyvä keskusteluharjoitus, jossa ratkotaan yhteiskunnallisia ongelmia arkitodellisuudesta etäännytetyssä skenaariossa. Lopuksi, klo 15.30 eteenpäin, aikaa jää vapaalle keskustelulle ja virvokkeille.

Työpajaan ovat tervetulleita kaikki spekulaatiota tutkivat ja siitä kiinnostuneet tieteenalaan katsomatta. Paja on kuitenkin kokonaan suomenkielinen. Tarjoilujen mitoittamista varten pyydämme ilmoittautumaan mukaan 12.5. mennessä tällä lomakkeella: https://forms.office.com/e/iu32UftgFw.

Työpajan järjestävät spekulaatiota ja sen eri muotoja omissa hankkeissaan tutkivat tohtorit Hanna-Riikka Roine (Tampereen yliopisto), Elise Kraatila (Tampereen yliopisto) ja Essi Varis (Helsingin & Oslon yliopistot). Viime vuonna pajan järjestäjät tuottivat myös spekulaatioon keskittyvän teemaosion Fafnir – Nordic Journal for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research -lehteen: http://journal.finfar.org/fafnir-2-2022.

Lisätietoja: hanna.roine(at)tuni.fi, elise.kraatila(at)tuni.fi ja essi.varis(at)helsinki.fi.

 

16.5. “Toward Engaged Narratology?” by Anna Ovaska

12.5. Guest lecture: Monika Fludernik “The History of Free Indirect Discourse before Jane Austen”

12.5. Concept Workshop: Voice

‘Voice’ has been a crucial and complex concept in various fields of humanities as well as social and political research.  The workshop considers questions like voice as a metaphor and source of subjectivity vs. voice as socially, culturally, and politically layered phenomenon, voice as a metaphor vs. the use of the material voice. In qualitative social research, the “own voice” of the studied ordinary people was celebrated for a long time, and sometimes researchers even promised to “give a voice” to the marginalized or subaltern people. In many languages, such and German and Finnish, voice and vote are still expressed by the same word.  In narratology, the voice (originally, by Genette) referred to the instance who was uttering the words and sentences we can read in different parts of fictional works. Feminist, postcolonial, and rhetorical narratologies, among others, have brought new layers and questions to the issue of the voice. How useful and productive is the concept of ‘voice’ for contemporary narrative studies? What different approaches to voice can be identified?

 

Guest speaker:

Monika Fludernik: Voice and the Medieval Storyteller

 

Other speakers:

Maria Mäkelä (literature): Voice and consciousness

Hanna Rautajoki (sociology): Aspects of voice in conversational storytelling

Mari Hatavara (literature): Vicarious voices

 

The workshop is open, but pre-registration on or before 4 May is recommended. Register here (https://forms.office.com/e/iftPaTJUav)

 

Note: Professor Fludernik will also present an open lecture on the same day at 10-12. More details: Link.

26.4. Book Launch: “Narrative in Urban Planning: A Practical Field Guide”

Lieven Ameel, Jens Martin Gurr, Barbara Buchenau

 

Book Launch for Narrative in Urban Planning: A Practical Field Guide

April 26, 2023. 15h-16.30h, at RJ108, School of Architecture, Hervanta Campus, Tampere University

Zoom link: https://tuni.zoom.us/j/68406184345?pwd=SjFkRXFTZk9TQm1zUzk2cy9pVmhJUT09

 

What do planners need to know in order to use narrative approaches responsibly in their practice? This practical field guide makes insights from narrative research accessible to planners through a glossary of key concepts in the field of narrative planning. What makes narratives coherent, probable, persuasive, even necessary – but also potentially harmful, manipulative and divisive? How can narratives help to build more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive communities? The authors are literary scholars who have extensive practical experience in planning practice, training planning scholars and practitioners or advising municipalities on how to harness the power of stories in urban development.

This is the first book to synthesize the theory and practice of storytelling in urban planning into a usable handbook for practitioners. It makes available key insights both from research and from practical experience in training planners and in working with municipalities. The emphasis is on accessibility and applicability: in clearly structured entries, this practical field guide defines key concepts, provides examples and illustrations, and discusses possible applications. The book aims to allow a practitioner in the middle of a project to quickly look up a relevant key concept, but also to provide pointers to in-depth research.

Program:

15.15: opening words

Lieven Ameel (TUNI), Jens Martin Gurr & Barbara Buchenau (University of Duisburg-Essen)

15.25-15.50: commentaries

“Narrative in planning” – commentator: Dalia Milián Bernal, architect and doctoral researcher (TUNI)

“utopia”, “metaphor”, “model” – commentator: Juho Rajaniemi, Vice Dean for Education, professor of urban planning and design (TUNI)

“rhythm”, “palimpsest”, “path-dependency” – commentator: Panu Lehtovuori, professor of planning theory (TUNI)

15.50-16.30: Q&A, refreshments

For catering, please sign in with this form by April 19: https://forms.office.com/e/6Fg8SKMczu

Book details and link:

Lieven Ameel, Jens Martin Gurr & Barbara Buchenau: Narrative in Urban Planning: A Practical Field Guide. Transcript 2023.

Published Open Access, March, 2023.

https://www.transcript-verlag.de/detail/index/sArticle/6337/sCategory/310000027

 

Event organizers: TUNI School of Architecture / Narrare Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies at Tampere University, Finland / History, Philosophy and Literary Studies Unit

 

25.4. “The Campfires of Storytelling Consultancy” by Maria Mäkelä

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues on Tuesday 25.4. at 4:00 pm with ”The Campfires of Storytelling Consultancy”.

Presenter: Maria Mäkelä.

Room Pinni B3111, or Zoom (Link). (Meeting ID: 668 4700 7494 Passcode: 045076)

 

The 21st century story economy, urging individuals, organizations, and businesses to become storytellers, has given rise to a new business branch, storytelling consultancy. While acknowledging the central role of cultural savviness in working life and creating new earning opportunities for humanists, the revenue logic of storytelling consultancy risks clouding the popular understanding of what narratives are and what they can do. My talk will address the prototypical doctrines of storytelling consultancy and the underlying concept of “compelling story” from a critical, narrative theory-informed perspective. I will discuss examples from the best-selling US storytelling manuals by Jonah Sachs (Winning the Story Wars 2012) and Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy 2018) and training materials by John Yorke (UK; johnyorkestory.com).

 

Maria Mäkelä, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature and former director (2016–2020) of Narrare. Her publications deal with the story economy; the neoliberal logic of narrative and fiction; exemplarity; consciousness, voice, and realism across media; adultery in fiction; authorial ethos; and critical applications of postclassical narratologies.

 

18.4. “Literary Epiphany from Modernism to Contemporary Short Fiction” by Riikka Pirinen

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues on Tuesday 18.4. at 4:00 pm with ”Literary Epiphany from Modernism to Contemporary Short Fiction”.

Presenter: Riikka Pirinen.

 

As a sudden and momentary experience of enlightenment, realization, or revelation, literary epiphany has been considered a trope typical to modernist literature, and particularly to modernist short fiction. The presentation asks why this modernist trope has made a significant return in contemporary forms of storytelling, and why epiphany has nested particularly in the short story form. Analyses of contemporary short fiction expose the roles and functions of literary epiphany, and show how it exploits, re-evaluates, and questions the tradition of modernism. Via these questions the presentation places literary epiphany in the discussion about metamodernism that seeks to conceptualize and understand the cultural space and dominant after postmodernism.

 

Riikka Pirinen is doctoral researcher in Literary Studies at Tampere University. She is working on her PhD thesis concerning the relations between literary epiphany and experience in Anglo-Saxon short story form in 20th and 21st centuries. Her research interests vary from narrative theory and short story form to modernism and its connections to metamodernism. Pirinen is currently writing two research articles concerning the use of free indirect discourse in Alice Munro’s poetics, and metamodernism in contemporary Finnish short fiction.

 

 

28.3. “Speculative Pasts and Futures in Non-Fictional Narratives” by Elise Kraatila

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues on Tuesday 28.3. at 4:00 pm with ”Speculative Pasts and Futures in Non-Fictional Narratives.

Presenter: Elise Kraatila.

The presentation discusses narrative speculation as an epistemic device in (ostensibly) non-fictional storytelling. It approaches the subject via two case studies: a speculative imagining of the Cretaceous epoch in David Attenborough’s documentary series Prehistoric Planet (2022), and an example of Yle’s “what if” -journalism titled “More than a million Finns might have to flee from east to west if Russia threatened war – an evacuation journey in 2022 would be like this” (September 2022). Analyzing these two recent instances of speculative storytelling in works framed as non-fiction, the presentation explores the relations between speculativeness and fictionality as epistemic and rhetorical modes of storytelling. What kind of knowledge is created, communicated or legitimized via non-fictional speculative narratives, and how does it resemble or differ from speculation as a device of narrative fiction?

 

7.3. “Implied Fandom and Game of Thrones” Markus Laukkanen

 

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues on Tuesday 7.3. at 4:00 pm with ”Implied Fandom and Game of Thrones”

 

The proliferation of the internet, and of participatory networked audiences, has changed the production and reception of most narratives. This presentation explores some of these changes from the point of view of the communicative structures proposed by narrative theory, particularly the model of the implied author. While that model itself remains somewhat contentious, some of the changes in the dynamics of communication of fictional texts in the age of the internet (or convergence culture) can be, if not exhaustively explained, then at least fruitfully approached through the lens of these models. This approach also illuminates the strengths and shortcomings of the model of the implied author itself from a novel perspective. While the presentation approaches the topic through HBO’s popular TV-series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), its paratexts and its audiences, similar structures of communication can be readily pointed out in many contemporary works of fiction.

 

21.2. HEX & Narrare: Concept workshop “master and counter narratives & cultural scripts”

 

Tuesday 21 February, 14.15-15.45
Tampere University, Linna building room K103

 

14.2. “Official Document Utopias” Marko Teräs

 

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues 14.2. at 4:00 pm with ”Official Document Utopias”

 

24.1. “Computational recognition of narratives” Mari Hatavara

 

Join us as Research Centre Narrare’s interdisciplinary Narrative Studies Seminar continues 24.1. at 4:00 pm with ”Computational recognition of narratives”