Authors

Anni Lappela¹;  ¹ University of Helsinki, Finland

Discussion

This presentation examines Arctic urban space and corporeality in Iuliia Nikitina’s graphic novels Polunochnaia zemlia (2017, “Northern Land”) and Dnevnik shtormov (“A Storm Diary”, 2019). Bodily experiences have a central role in Nikitina’s oeuvre, and the presentation explores how the Arctic urban space is represented through the bodily experience in her works. Furthermore, the paper investigates how the history of the industrialization and the Soviet era “conquest of the North” is narrated in the novels.
The presentation approach spatiality in Nikitina’s novels asking, how the Soviet and post-Soviet era urbanity is narrated visually and textually. The Arctic cities of Salekhard and Vorkuta, portrayed in Nikitina’s novels, are dependent on the fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal, and my presentation analyses, how the influence of these industries is represented in the novels. The presentation shows, how graphic novel, as a unique form of narration, can offer a multi-layered view to the portrayal of the Arctic nature, urbanization and industrialization thought the intimate memories and spatial experience.