Girlhood, Truth, and Metafiction: A new literary novel from Finland

In her newly translated novel Enchantment, Finnish author Riikka Pulkkinen weaves a complex story of power, identity, and the fragile boundary between truth and fiction. Join Riikka and her translator Tabatha Leggett in a conversation spanning literary representations of girlhood, the gaze of the camera in art, and the challenges of translating fragmented and metafictional narratives. Chairing the conversation will be Riitta-Liisa Valijarvi, Associate Professor of Finnish and Minority Languages at UCL. The event will include a live audience Q&A.

When seventeen-year-old Philippa’s body is found in the yard outside her home, the police launch an investigation. Everyone close to her is questioned: The elderly neighbour who discovered her body, who kept confusing Philippa with his late wife. The best friend, who hoards a secret stash of objects she’d stolen from Philippa over the years. The ex-boyfriend, still reeling from their sudden break-up months before. The woman who features, enraged, in some of the strange videos Philippa filmed on her beloved PEN Olympus camera. The older men she’d been meeting via a dating app. Each tells a different story: Philippa was a confidant, a fantasy, a temptation, a problem, a mystery, a mirror. But did any of them truly know her? Enchantment is a spellbinding literary mystery that explores the uneasy terrain of girlhood, where one is always being watched, shaped, and judged by others.

This event is organised by the UCL Platform for Linguistic and Epistemic Justice (PLEJ) and supported by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, the Finnish Literature Exchange (FILI), and Scribe.

Speakers

Riikka Pulkkinen is the author of True, which was published in 17 countries and shortlisted for the 2010 Finlandia Prize for Fiction. The Limit, her debut novel, was a bestseller in Finland and the Netherlands and won the Kaarle and Laila Hirvisaari prizes.

Tabatha Leggett is a writer and literary translator. She is a current Iowa Arts Fellow at the University of Iowa’s Literary Translation MFA programme and a graduate of New York University’s Fiction MFA programme, where she was an Axinn Fellow.