When Stories Behave Like Water: Toward a Blue Narratology of Diane Setterfield's Once Upon a River and Julia Armfield's Our Wives Under the Sea

Jensen, Cecilie Lindgaard

4. term

English, Master

2026

2026-06-01

67

Although water covers more than 70% of the planet, literary criticism has often been land-centered, treating land as the main site of history, culture, and meaning. This thesis explores how Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River (2018) and Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea (2022) challenge that bias by showing water as an active force that shapes narrative forms, human subjectivity (experience and identity), and relations between human and other-than-human worlds. The study is situated in the interdisciplinary fields of Ecocriticism, the Blue Humanities, and the Hydrohumanities. While previous scholarship has emphasized water’s material agency, political significance, and role in environmental thought, this thesis shifts attention from what water represents to how water organizes storytelling at the formal level. It proposes the concept of “Blue Narratology,” defined as the study of how aquatic environments shape narrative form. Methodologically, the thesis combines close reading with ecocritical, hydrohumanist, and narratological approaches. Through analyses of structure, temporality (time), embodiment, transformation, and consciousness, it shows how both novels let aquatic logics guide the narrative. In Once Upon a River, the River Thames acts as a connective force that shapes narrative movement, creating a branching, tributary-like structure in which stories flow into one another. In Our Wives Under the Sea, a fragmented, descending structure mirrors the ocean’s inscrutability. Reading a river novel and an ocean novel together reveals water as a generative force that structures narrative form and reconfigures relationships between humans and their environments. Ultimately, the thesis argues that water is not merely a setting or a symbol but a narrative force that shapes how stories are told, experienced, and understood. By demonstrating how aquatic environments influence narrative form, the study contributes to ongoing conversations in the Blue Humanities and highlights the value of literary analysis for understanding other-than-human worlds. At a time when water is central to environmental, cultural, and political debates, these novels suggest that literature can do more than represent water; it can invite readers to think with water and imagine alternative ways of relating to the dynamic worlds of water.

Selvom vand dækker over 70% af kloden, har litterær kritik ofte været landcentreret og sat jord i centrum for historie, kultur og mening. Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan Diane Setterfields Once Upon a River (2018) og Julia Armfields Our Wives Under the Sea (2022) udfordrer denne bias ved at vise vand som en aktiv kraft, der former fortælleformer, menneskelig subjektivitet (oplevelse og identitet) og relationer mellem mennesker og andre-end-menneskelige verdener. Afhandlingen placerer sig i de tværfaglige felter økokritik, Blå humaniora og hydrohumaniora. Hvor tidligere forskning har fremhævet vands materielle handlekraft, politiske betydning og rolle i miljøtænkning, flytter denne studie fokus fra, hvad vand repræsenterer, til hvordan vand påvirker den formelle organisering af fortælling. Afhandlingen foreslår begrebet "Blå narratologi" som studiet af, hvordan akvatiske miljøer former narrativ form. Metodisk kombineres nærlæsning med økokritiske, hydrohumanistiske og narratologiske tilgange. Gennem analyser af struktur, temporalitet (tid), kropslighed, transformation og bevidsthed viser afhandlingen, hvordan begge romaner lader akvatiske logikker organisere fortællingen. I Once Upon a River fungerer Themsen som en forbindende kraft, der styrer bevægelsen og skaber en forgrenet, biflodslignende struktur, hvor historier flyder ind i hinanden. I Our Wives Under the Sea spejler en fragmenteret, nedadgående struktur havets uigennemskuelighed. Ved at sætte en flodroman og en havroman i dialog tydeliggør afhandlingen, hvordan vand optræder som en generativ kraft, der strukturerer fortælleformen og omkonfigurerer forholdet mellem mennesker og deres omgivelser. Afhandlingen argumenterer for, at vand ikke blot fungerer som ramme eller symbol, men som en fortællekraft, der former, hvordan historier bliver fortalt, erfaret og forstået. Ved at vise, hvordan akvatiske miljøer påvirker narrativ form, bidrager studiet til igangværende samtaler i Blå humaniora og fremhæver litterær analyses værdi for forståelsen af andre-end-menneskelige verdener. I en tid hvor vand er centralt i miljømæssige, kulturelle og politiske debatter, peger romanerne på, at litteratur ikke kun kan repræsentere vand, men kan invitere læsere til at tænke med vand og forestille sig nye måder at forholde sig til vandets dynamiske verdener.

[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]

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