Samuli Björninen

Senior reseacher specializing in narrative theory, rhetorical approaches to fictionality and factuality, and conceptual histories of fiction and fact. My research project Little Giants of Knowledge: Rhetoric of Factuality and Factual Narratives in the Modern History of Knowledge (2026–2027) is funded by the Kone Foundation and affiliated to Narrare: Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies. My research interests also include the use of narrative and fictionality in science communication, literary genres blending fiction and non-fiction, and literary postmodernism and metamodernism.

Interdisciplinary narrative theory, rhetorical narrative theory, theories of fictionality and factuality, novel theory, postmodernist and post-postmodernist poetics, Anglophone literatures

Member of conference committee: ENN9, European Narratology Network, Tampere University (2026–2027)

Executive Board of Narrare Centre, Tampere University (2016–2017, 2021–)

Member of conference committee: Narrative Matters 2023, Tampere University (2021–2023) 

Kirjallisuudentutkijain seura/Finnish literary research society, board member (2017–2020), vice-chairperson (2019–2020)

Deputy member of the Scientific Council, University of Tampere (2017–2018)

Board member of PLURAL research centre, University of Tampere (2014–2017)

Coordinator of Narrare Centre, University of Tampere (2014–2016)

Literary studies, narrative studies

Senior researcher (PI), Little Giants of Knowledge: Rhetoric of Factuality and Factual Narratives in the Modern History of Knowledge, Kone Foundation 2026–2027. 

Senior researcher (project member), Authors of the Story Economy, Academy of Finland, 2025–2026.

Postdoc, Centre for the Rise of Science and Fiction, Aarhus University, Sep 2023 – Aug 2024.

Part-time lecturer, Literary Studies, Tampere University, Sep 2022 – Jun 2023. 

University researcher, Tampere University (with duties of coordinator/grant writer for a Horizon Europe application), Jan–Feb 2023. 

University lecturer in Literary Studies (fixed-term), Tampere University, Jan 2021 – Jun 2022.

Postdoc (project member), INFOSTORY (Emil Aaltonen Foundation), Tampere University, Dec 2020.

Postdoc (project member), Instrumental Narratives (Academy of Finland), Tampereen yliopisto, Jan–Nov 2020.

Postdoc (project member), Kertomuksen vaarat -projekti (Kone Foundation), Tampereen yliopisto, Jan–Dec 2019.

Postdoc, Centre for Fictionality Studies, Aarhusin yliopisto, Jan–Dec 2018.

PhD, University of Tampere, Comparative Literature, March 2018,

Björninen, Samuli. 2025. Sopimukset katkolla. Romaanin ja ei-fiktiivisten proosalajien lomittumisia 2000-luvun suomalaisessa autofiktiossa ja metafiktiivisessä elämäkerrassa. In Romaanin tieto: kirjan ja kirjailijan muuttuvat roolit yhteiskunnassa (eds. Elina Arminen, Ralf Kauranen, Markku Lehtimäki, Hanna-Leena Määttä & Laura Piippo). Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.

Björninen, Samuli. 2024. On Being Lectured in and By Fiction: Rhetorical Directness and Indirectness of Fictional Instructiveness. In Dangers of Narrative and Fictionality: A Rhetorical Approach to Storytelling in Contemporary Western Culture (eds. Samuli Björninen, Pernille Meyer, Maria Mäkelä and Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen). Berlin: Peter Lang. 213–238. Part of DOI: 10.3726/b21221.

Björninen, Samuli, Pernille Meyer, Maria Mäkelä & Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen (eds.). 2024. Dangers of Narrative and Fictionality: A Rhetorical Approach to Storytelling in Contemporary Western Culture. Berlin: Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/b21221.

Hyvärinen, Matti & Samuli Björninen (eds.). 2024. Narrative Works special issue 13(1) titled “Considering Political Counter-Narratives.” URL: https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/issue/view/2362.

Isomaa, Saija, Samuli Björninen, Mari Hatavara & Nanny Jolma. 2024. Kirjailijapoetiikan keskeiset tutkimuslinjat. In Kirjailijapoetiikat: poetiikan näkökulmia kirjailijoiden tuotantoihin (eds. Saija Isomaa, Samuli Björninen, Mari Hatavara & Nanny Jolma). 16–51. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Part of DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/skst.1492.

Isomaa, Saija, Samuli Björninen, Mari Hatavara & Nanny Jolma (eds.). 2024. Kirjailijapoetiikat: poetiikan näkökulmia kirjailijoiden tuotantoihin. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21435/skst.1492.

Björninen, Samuli. 2023. Todellisuuden juonellistamisesta vastakertomusten poliittiseen mobilisointiin: salaliittoteoriat kohtaavat kertomustutkimuksen ja kaunokirjallisen poetiikan. In Salaliittoteorioiden politiikat (eds. Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen and Niko Pyrhönen). Tampere: Vastapaino. 105–128.

Björninen, Samuli & Merja Polvinen (eds.). 2022. Partial Answers special issue 20(2) titled “Limits of Narrative.” DOI: 10.1353/PAN.2022.0012.

Mäkelä, Maria & Samuli Björninen. 2022. My Story, Your Narrative: Scholarly Terms and Popular Usage. In Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory (eds. Paul Dawson & Maria Mäkelä). London: Routledge. 11–23. DOI: 10.4324/9781003100157-3.

Mäkelä, Maria, Samuli Björninen, Laura Karttunen, Matias Nurminen, Juha Raipola, & Tytti Rantanen. 2021. Dangers of Narrative: A Critical Approach to Narratives of Personal Experience in Contemporary Story Economy. Narrative 29(2): 139–159. DOI: 10.1353/nar.2021.0009.

Björninen, Samuli (ed.). 2021. Kertomus postmodernismin jälkeen. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. DOI: 10.21435/skst.1476.

Björninen, Samuli. 2021. Romaani pakenevan elämän jäljillä: Jaakko Yli-Juonikkaan Neuromaanin realismista. In Kertomus postmodernismin jälkeen (ed. Samuli Björninen). Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 169–194. Part of DOI: 10.21435/skst.1476.

Björninen, Samuli, Elise Kraatila, Markus Laukkanen, Valtteri Leinonen, Mikko Mäntyniemi, Matias Nurminen & Janica Oke. 2021. Johdanto: kertomus postmodernismin jälkeen. In Kertomus postmodernismin jälkeen (ed. Samuli Björninen). Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 13–40. Part of DOI: 10.21435/skst.1476.

Björninen, Samuli, Mari Hatavara, & Maria Mäkelä. 2020. Narrative as Social Action: A Narratological Approach on Story, Discourse and Positioning in Political Storytelling. International Journal for Social Research Methodology 23(4): 437–449. DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2020.1721971.

Björninen, Samuli. 2019. Faktat ja narratiivit: kertomustutkimuksen näkökulma postmoderniin tiedon kritiikkiin ja kertomuspuheeseen tiedekeskustelussa. Tiede ja edistys, 44(4): 276–297. DOI: 10.51809/te.109629.

Björninen, Samuli. 2019. The Rhetoric of Factuality in Narrative: Appeals to Authority in Claas Relotius’s Feature Journalism. Narrative Inquiry 29(2): 352–370. DOI: 10.1075/ni.19024.bjo.