From the Creaturely Sublime to the Solastalgically Sublime in Kerstin Ekman's novel "The Wolf Run" ("Löpa varg")

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2025.16.1.5551

Keywords:

human-animal transformation, the creaturely sublime, memory, the solastalgic sublime, eco-masculinity, Kerstin Ekman

Abstract

Building on Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of the patriarchal myth of nature as a hunting ground and Ursula K. Le Guin’s rejection of the hero story as a killer story, the article examines how these hegemonic narratives of nature’s domination are critically revised in Kerstin Ekman’s novel The Wolf Run (Löpa varg, 2021). A close textual analysis shows how the protagonist’s encounter with a wolf transforms into an experience of the creaturely sublime, radically challenging his instrumental relationship with nature. On the one hand, he mimetically aligns himself with nature, moving as a wolf in ways that defy rational comprehension; on the other hand, he comes to recognize his complicity in the destruction of the forest ecosystem. The guilt-laden experience of environmental destruction and loss takes the form of the solastalgic sublime, ultimately empowering him to advocate for the preservation of healthy ecosystems. The article concludes by exploring how this shift reshapes his understanding of masculinity through the lens of eco-masculinity.

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Author Biography

Sophie Wennerscheid, Universität Kopenhagen

Sophie Wennerscheid is Professor of Nordic Literature at the University of Copenhagen. Her research spans ecocriticism, food studies, speculative fiction, gender and sexuality studies, and intermediality. Her most recent book, Sex Machina: Zur Zukunft des Begehrens (2019; Sex Machina: On the Future of Desire), explores how technology reshapes intimate relationships. Her current work marks a shift from human–machine relations to the entangled dynamics between humans, plants, and animals. Through literature and film, she investigates how narratives engage with food production, ecological belonging, and multispecies conviviality.

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Published

2025-04-30

Issue

Section

Articles: Anthropocene Sublimes