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Elise Nykänen is an expert in the study of literature and emotions and cognitive and affective narratology. Her research interests include literary modernisms, fictional mind presentation and fictional dialogue. Her monograph Mysterious Minds: The Making of Private and Collective Consciousness in Marja-Liisa Vartio’s novels (based on her dissertation) was published in 2017. Nykänen has also published several articles on her research topics in Finnish and international volumes, journals, and conference proceedings and co-edited the volume Dialogi kaunokirjallisuudessa (Dialogue in Fiction, 2013). Her current post-doctoral project examines existential feelings and moods in character narration and consciousness presentation in Finnish modernist prose fiction.

Nykänen has worked as a Visiting Post-Doctoral Scholar both at the History of Emotions Research Center at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (2018) and at the Project Narrative Institute at the Ohio State University (2015‒2016) in Columbus. During her PhD studies, she also visited the International Graduate Center for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at Justus Liebig University in Giessen (2013).

Nykänen’s teaching has centered on such topics as Finnish post-war modernism, narrative rhetoric, fictional mind presentation and fictional dialogue. She has also taught basic courses on literary and textual analysis.