A1 Journal article (refereed)
Itseään rukoilevat koneet : kirjaimellistuvat kielikuvat scifirunoa rakentamassa (2022)
The machines that are praying to themselves : literalizing figures of speech constructing the science fiction poem

Sirviö, T. (2022). Itseään rukoilevat koneet : kirjaimellistuvat kielikuvat scifirunoa rakentamassa. Kulttuurintutkimus, 39(3), 22-38. https://journal.fi/kulttuurintutkimus/article/view/113747

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Sirviö, Tomi

Journal or series: Kulttuurintutkimus

ISSN: 0781-5751

eISSN: 2490-1792

Publication year: 2022

Publication date: 16/11/2022

Volume: 39

Issue number: 3

Pages range: 22-38

Publisher: Kulttuurintutkimuksen seura

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

Persistent website address: https://journal.fi/kulttuurintutkimus/article/view/113747

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/84020

Additional information: Artikkelit

Abstract

In this article I analyze three Finnish poems which all include topics from Science Fiction. The poems are Markku Paasonen’s “Kone” (“Machine”), Veera Antsalo’s “Play” and Tomi Sonster's “Tettiläinen” (“Practical Trainee”). Every science fiction world is constructed around a novum. Novum is something that differs from the author’s own reality, and which is explained with a scientific method. According to Carl Malmgren, novums are based on poetic figures of speech. The extrapolative novum is based on metonymy and the speculative novum is based on metaphor. First, I analyze metaphor and metonymy as novums which become concrete in the poems. Then I localize five features that are common with science fiction and poetry. According to Seo-Young Chu, those features are 1) science fictional soliloquists, 2) lyric time, 3) verbal intensity, 4) musicality and 5) heightened and eccentric states of subjectivity. In my main conclusion poems show that the world ruled by machines will be uninventive. If these poems are science fiction is an irrelevant question, because analyzing them through the genre of science fiction increases the reader’s understanding of the problems in our own reality.

Keywords: poems; lyric poetry; science fiction (literature); figures of speech; metaphors; metonymy; intertextuality; literary research

Free keywords: Paasonen, Markku; Antsalo, Veera; Sonster, Tomi

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2022

JUFO rating: 1