The underground and end of geologic imaginations in the Finnish/Swedish TV Series White Wall

Abstract

In this article, I analyse how underground landscapes are represented in the Finnish/Swedish television series, White Wall (2020). Subterranean imaginations, I argue, help reconceptualise the agency of the inorganic, mineral and geological along with that of the biological and social. Juxtaposing the underground with the surface, White Wall unfolds not only horizontal but also vertical ways of thinking about human/non-human relations in the Anthropocene. I also discuss how the series engages with fantastical nineteenth-century stories of Earth’s exploration. Through dialogue with literary predecessors, White Wall grapples with how retrospective and prospective designations of the new geologic epoch collide.