In her lecture, Hanna Meretoja will present her debut novel "Elotulet", the German translation of which was recently published as "Die Nacht der alten Feuer". Hanna Meretoja is a Finnish literary scholar, narrative theorist and writer. Her research focuses on the fields of narrative research, trauma research and medical humanities. The breast cancer diagnosis she received in 2019 and her own experience of illness are important starting points for the novel, which uses literary fiction to explore the existential crisis that a serious illness brings with it.
Meretoja will talk about the process of writing the novel. The protagonist is a literary scholar who has researched storytelling and is interested in the philosopher Hannah Arendt. The author discusses how many of her own academic interests have fed into the fabric of the novel. Much of her research revolves around the friction between life and narrative, the philosophical foundations of literature, the narrativisation of illness and trauma, and the role of water in literature. These themes are integral to the novel, in which cultural theory and philosophy are interwoven with a strong sense of lived experience.
This text was translated automatically.
