Aqueous Narration in Maja Lunde’s Blå

Abstract

Drawing on blue humanities scholarship and narratological theory, this article develops a ‘blue’ narratological approach to examine how hydrological conditions influence narrative organization in Maja Lunde’s speculative climate novel Blå. Through close readings, I trace how shifting water conditions, including storms, tides, drought and water scarcity, influence both narrative duration and narrative progression across the novel’s dual timelines. In the first storyline, which follows the climate activist Signe on her solo voyage across the Atlantic, calm seas open up space for memory and reflection, while storms compress narrative time and force action. In the second storyline, set decades later in a drought-stricken France, limited access to water constrains movement and produces periods of stasis. Prolonged waiting slows narrative progression and generates forms of temporal suspension, yet recurring water-related crises repeatedly disrupt this stasis and propel the narrative forward. Across both storylines, hydrological conditions influence when action becomes possible and when it is deferred or brought to a halt. I also examine how the novel’s ending departs from conventional narrative closure. Rather than resolving narrative desire through the completion of its protagonists’ journeys, Blå redirects attention toward the anticipated return of water and the hydrological cycles that connect its two timelines. By analyzing water as a structuring force, the article demonstrates how environmental change may help shape narrative organization as well as thematic representation.