Imagination and Reality in Sami Fantasy

Abstract

What is imagined and what is real? These are relevant questions in the fantasy novel Ilmmiid gaskkas (2013), written by Sami author Máret Ánne Sara and translated into English by Laura A. Janda as In Between Worlds (2016). The narrative depicts parallel stories, set above and below ground, and highlights an imbalance between our world on earth and that of our neighbours, the ulda-people in the underworld. In the human world, the fight for land is an essential part of the narrative, and contamination and construction work in this world lead to environmental devastation for the ulda-people in the underworld. The protagonists, teenaged siblings Sanne and Lemme, start in the human world and end up in the underworld, and the struggle to survive, both in the real and the fantastic world, is one of the main themes of the novel.