Synthesis of genres in Johanna Sinisalo's novel Enkelten verta (the blood of angels)

The paper analyzes the Finnish literary movement “suomikumma” designed to challenge the tradition of realistic writing, which has long dominated the Finnish literary scene. In addition to Sinisalo, modern Finnish writers such as Leena Krohn, Emmy Itaranta, Antti Tuomainen and Tiina Raevaara are active members of “suomikumma”. Different classifications of genre characters of both fantasy and science fiction are compared in the paper. The author comes to the conclusion that this Sinisalo's novel is a synthesis of genres, and highlights its most fundamental features. Indeed, fantasy gave the novel a detailed elaboration of the described world, a special role of mythology, and environmental topics. In addition, the central idea of the book is based on Darko Suvin's thought experiment, referring us to the “novum” as the fundamental tool for creating a fictional world. It is concluded that The Blood of Angels has features characteristic of both fantasy and science fiction: the fantasy world becomes an actor and takes an active position in relation to its heroes, and the time of action is transferred to the near future, where currently emerging environmental problems are becoming global.