Concept Workshop: Speculation

Fafnir presents

Concept Workshop: Speculation

When? May 25, 2022, 2–4 pm

Where? Realfagsbibliotekets undervisingsrom 209, Blindern campus, University of Oslo & Zoom [contact us for link]

Welcome to the speculative concept workshop organized by the editors of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research! In this two-hour workshop, we will discuss the concept of ‘speculation’ and aim to (re-)define it in a way that would make it a useful analytical tool for science fiction and fantasy scholars. The workshop will be organized at the University of Oslo in a hybrid format.

WHAT?

The workshop is organized in preparation to Fafnir 2/2022 (this year’s December issue), which features a speacial theme section called “Speculation Toolkit”. The questions explored in the issue and, thereby, in the workshop include but are not restricted to the following:

• What does ‘speculation’ mean and what do we do when we speculate?
• How and from which theoretical perspectives has speculation been studied? What other approaches could still be employed?
• Why should science fiction and fantasy researchers care about speculation, and what could they do with it?
• What is the relationship between speculation and speculative fiction?

Although ‘speculative fiction’ has recently gained popularity as the new umbrella term for fantastic fiction, ‘speculation’ itself remains an ambiguous, even obscure concept. Within science fiction studies, ‘speculation’ is usually defined either in opposition to or as something of a synonym for ‘extrapolation’ (see Landon 2014). In more general literary and narrative studies, readers’ engagement with the possible (and the impossible) has mostly been studied in relation to plot and narration, even though fleshing out storyworlds and characters requires speculative thought as well. All in all, speculation is something that we do in a wide array of contexts when something seems uncertain: it is a cognitive or artistic strategy that functions somewhere beyond knowing and actualization.

WHY?

In this workshop, we discuss possible ways to pin this nebulous concept down. To guide the discussion, we invite the participants to read some materials in advance. In addition, we have invited colleagues from different theoretical backgrounds to give 5–10 minute presentations on how they (would) approach the concept of speculation. The workshop then culminates in general discussion, which aims to arrive at a comprehensive definition of ‘speculation’ in the framework of literary and/or SFF scholarship.

The result will be submitted to the Finnish online research dictionary, Tieteen termipankki. In addition, we invite the workshop participants to distill the main points of the discussion into a co-written dialogical essay, which will be published as part of Fafnir 2/2022. The essay will not be peer-reviewed, and participating in the workshop does not obligate anyone to participate in the writing process. Fafnir is a fully open access, World Fantasy Award winning academic journal published by the Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research (Finfar).

MATERIALS (= recommended background reading):

• Landon (2014) “Extrapolation and Speculation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, edited by Rob Latham, 24–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Roine (2020) “On Speculation as a Strategy”. Fafnir 7:2, p. 8–15.
• pages 254–262 (“Speculative Fiction: What Is It and What Does It Do?”) of Varis (2022) “Strange Tools and Dark Materials: Speculating Beyond Narratives with Philosophical Instruments”. Partial Answers 20:2 (forthcoming).
• Chattopadhyay (2020) “The Pandemic That Was Always Here, and Afterward: from Futures to CoFutures”. In “Thinking through the Pandemic: A Symposium.” Science Fiction Studies 47.3 (November 2020): 338–340.

PROGRAMME

14:00 – 14:50: Different perspectives to speculation

• Hanna-Riikka Roine (Tampere University): Speculation as a Strategy (10 min)
• Essi Varis (University of Oslo/University of Helsinki): Speculation and Imagination as Cognitive Action (10 min)
• Sarah Bro Trasmundi (University of Oslo/ University of Southern Denmark): Embodied Perspective on Speculation (10 min)
• Elise Kraatila (Tampere University): Speculation as a Response to Reality (10 min)
• Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay (University of Oslo): Speculation and Compossible Futures (10 min)

14:50–15:00 Short Break

15:00 – 16:00 General discussion (30 min) & refining the definition (30 min)

***

Welcome to the workshop and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

Hanna-Riikka Roine (hanna.roine@tuni.fi)

Essi Varis (essi.varis@helsinki.fi)

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

speculation n. an act or instance of speculating: such as, assumption of unusual business risk in hopes of obtaining commensurate gain

Synonyms: adventure, chance, crapshoot, enterprise, flier, flutter, gamble, throw, venture

Antonyms: sure thing

Cambridge Online Dictionary:

speculation n. the activity of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain; the act of speculating in order to make a profit