Negotiating the Fantastic: Urban Fantasy Elements in Hanna Alkaf’s Hamra and the Jungle of Memories (2023)

Abstract

This paper examines Hanna Alkaf’s Hamra and the Jungle of Memories as a work of urban fantasy, focusing on how the novel draws on and modifies the genre’s established conventions. Drawing on the genre fiction formula by Wyatt and Sarick, this study employs qualitative textual analysis to identify the key feature of urban fantasy: the coexistence of human and non-human entities in recognizable contemporary settings. The analysis reveals that the novel retains the core structure of urban fantasy while deliberately modifying its formula. Instead of featuring familiar Western non-human figures, the novel foregrounds Malaysian and Southeast Asian mythological creatures, thereby situating the fantastic within local tradition. In addition, the novel shifts from the genre’s typical urban or metropolitan setting to the forest as the main site for encounters between human and non-human entities. The paper concludes that Hamra and the Jungle of Memories demonstrates how urban fantasy can be adapted to non-Western contexts by reworking the genre conventions. Such modifications suggest the genre fiction's flexibility and highlight the role of local myth and space in expanding the boundaries of contemporary fantasy narratives.