Fictional Minds in Natural Environments : Changing Ecologies, Human Experiences, and Textual Designs in Ulla-Lena Lundberg's Ice

Abstract

The essay studies Ulla-Lena Lundberg's novel Ice, the story of which depicts the changing seasons and the formation of sea ice in the Aland archipelago. In the narrative, ice takes both mental and physical dimensions, and the analysis focuses on the workings of fictional minds in their specific natural and social environments. It is argued that nature both inspires and informs human experience and meaning making, even as it resists and challenges, human aims and hopes. In the novel, the characters have differing views on the natural environment and conflicting interpretations of what nature and its phenomena, including ice, could mean.