Mahdollisia maailmoja Johanna Sinisalon romaanissa Sankarit

In my article, I examine the image of the future constructed in the reading of Johanna Sinisalo's novel Sankarit (2003) through gender and science fiction studies. In her novel, Sinisalo retells the heroic stories familiar from the Kalevala, placing the Kalevala characters in a fictional contemporary Finnish context. In my article, I focus on two characters, Mrs Alakorkee - the Kalevala counterpart of the Pohjola's mistress and Louhi - and Auroora, the daughter of Rex and Oona (Väinämöinen and Aino in Kalevala). I examine how Sinisalo also operates with the kalevalan battle between good and evil, transposing it into her novel, as a dilemma between worlds representing a dystopian and a utopian vision of the future. Instead of the clear dichotomous setting of the Kalevala, the novel brings together, for example, culture and hard technology, feminine and masculine orders, and the old and new world order. The novel does not preach, but it raises possible alternative images of the future of our world.