1.500 reads for introductory chapter on animal representations

Our chapter "Introduction: The semiotics of animal representations" (co-written by me and Kadri Tüür) has reached 1.500 reads on ResearchGate.

Project extension requested (wolf interview material)

I have just submitted another status report for the research subproject "Representations (both problematic and romanticizing) of large mammals, especially wolves" to NSD/Personvernombudet, requesting an extension of the project until the end of 2020.

Writing of first field work Work Paper commenced

Today I have started writing "Work Paper 1 concerning field work in the case study Representations (Both Problematic and Romanticizing) of Large Mammals, Especially Wolves partaking in the research project Animals In Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis”. This Work Paper, the first in a series of three, will be written by Paul Thibault and me. When completed each Work Paper will be made available on the Norwegian webpages of the research project.

To present at Estonian seminar on ecosemiotic methodology

I plan to take part and present at the Seminar on methodology of ecosemiotics which is to be held November 28th-29th in Tartu, Estonia. This will be my first trip to Tartu since last summer.

The title of my presentation will be “Plans for field work on predator-prey conflicts in Norway involving video-recorded interviews followed by pico-scale analysis” (see posts on the Norwegian-Estonian research project "Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis").

'Animal and Eve' paper scheduled for presentation

Today I have received the preliminary program for the international workshop Humanimals: Examining Histories and Productions of Animal-Human Relationships, which is to be held in Oslo, Norway, on September 26-27th. My paper "Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities" has been scheduled for presentation as part of the second day's Panel 1 (09.30-11.00), along with papers by Terje Finstad (NTNU) and Senna Middelveld (University of Aberdeen). Carla Freccero, the workshop's keynote speaker, and Gro Ween will serve as discussants.

See also:

"Animal and Eve" paper accepted for presentation in September

Research project application on "Animals in changing environments" successful

Yesterday I was informed by my collaborator Timo Maran, based in Tartu, that our joint application for support to the research project "Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis" (2013-2016), submitted in March, has proven to be successful. The project will be funded with a total of 192.552 Euro (under the EEA Norway Grants mechanism), which is to be divided quite equally by the Estonian research group and the Norwegian one, which will be headed by me. The Norwegian research group will be based at the University of Stavanger.

Formally the research project will be initiated immediately, since it begins September 2013.

See also:

Further info on Estonian-Norwegian research project application (April 2013)

Contribution to Estonian-Norwegian research project application (March 2013)

"Animal and Eve" paper accepted for presentation in September

My paper "Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities" has been accepted for presentation at the international workshop Humanimals: Examining Histories and Productions of Animal-Human Relationships, to be held in Oslo, Norway, on September 26-27th.

A 2000 word paper to be distributed to participants is due September 5th.

Abstract: "Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities"

Yesterday I wrote and submitted the following abstract to the international workshop "Humanimals: Examining Histories and Productions of Animal-Human Relationships", to be held in Oslo September 26-27th:

Animal and Eve: How representations of wolves and sheep are used to construct human identities

Morten Tønnessen

Associate professor at University of Stavanger (Department of health studies) and Chair of Minding Animals Norway

The questions of the nature of the wolf, sheep, and humans, are methodologically problematic for two different reasons: Human’s nature because we are the topic to be investigated; the wolf’s and the sheep’s nature because we are not wolves nor sheep. However, what we think about what it is like to be a wolf or a sheep actually says a great deal about what it means, for us, to be human.

Wolves and sheep are among the animals that have been the most significant in terms of cultural impact. The animal representations involving these two animals – which are often perceived as being in fundamental opposition to each other – are countless; only a few examples can be mentioned in this paper. These include wolf-derived names from Adolf Hitler to Varg Vikernes, words and expressions (“lone wolf terrorist”), fairy tales and Bible stories, and canine or ovine appearances in a number of contemporary TV series and movies. Whereas the werewolf is conceptually a wolfman, the hilarious 2006 movie Black Sheep introduced the weresheep (and thus the sheepman).

In popular culture, the wolf symbolizes evil, bottomless hunger, and raw sexuality. The fact that in old Norse “vargr” (cf. the Swedish varg), the word for wolf, meant “outlaw”, and was also used in the sense of “murderer”, “slayer”, is telling of the way we routinely attribute human characteristics to wolves, and vice versa. To some extent the same can be said about the sheep, which traditionally symbolizes that which is to be protected, flock animals, and stupidity.

This paper will draw on semiotics, philosophy, and Human-Animal Studies at large.

Introduction chapter for animal representations book finished

This last Friday - or more accurately during the night between Friday and Saturday - I finished writing the introduction chapter for the Rodopi anthology The Semiotics of Animal Representations. The introduction, "Introduction: The Semiotics of Animal Representations", totalling some 7.800 words, is co-written with Kadri Tüür (and the collection co-edited with her). The introduction gives a fairly extensive coverage of how zoosemiotics and related disciplines can be made use of as foundational for the more general study of humans' various representations of animals.

Our submission of the full manuscript is now awaiting language editing of the introduction and some further minute tasks.

Finishing book proposal on animal representations

The last few days I have, with some effort, revised

* the book proposal (6pp)
* the abstract book (17pp)
* Editors' and authors' information sheet (4pp)

... for the edited collection The Semiotics of Animal Representations, for which Kadri Tüür and I are the prospective editors. There's 15 chapters ... and 27pp to present the idea of the book, 14 abstracts included, from contributors that have all confirmed their participation in the book project.

I hope and expect we can submit it in a matter of days.

Pictures from my field trip to Rendalen and Stor-Elvdal

The book store at Koppang, Stor-Elvdal - "read about handicapped Emilie and her dramatic fight for survival in the wilderness of Østerdalen".

Koppangtunet hotel, Stor-Elvdal.

Rendalen municipality house (Bergset, Rendalen).

The public library at Koppang, Stor-Elvdal.

Rendalen (Åkrestrømmen).

Academic reports II

The last few days I have, in effect, concluded 2009 reporting to two research projects, "Dynamical zoosemiotics and animal representations" (10pp) and "Methods of Biosemiotics" respectively. The former includes plans for 2010 (field trips, research stays, conference participation and expected publications).

In the process I am updating my info at the Estonian Research Information System (ETIS).

The abstract book of the 2009 world congress in semiotics

... is to be found here.

My contribution (p. 153) ends abruptly, with a word missing.

THE CHANGING IMAGERY OF THE BIG BAD WOLF

Autores/Autors: Morten Tønnessen (UNIVERSITY OF TARTU)

The current work is part of the author’s ecosemiotic analysis of Norwegian/Scandinavian wolf management in the period 1855-2010. In Norway, as in several other countries, wolf management is controversial. For some on the countryside it has come to symbolize the ignorant hostility (and imperialistic tendencies) of the urban elites. There is a wide gap between perceptions on the conservation side and in the antagonistic camp, and the proper role of folklore – which is considered by wolf ecologists as unscientific – has never been agreed upon. Field observations confirm that the political and cultural strife has little basis in actual wolf ecology – sheep, for instance, which play a marginal role in Scandinavian wolf diet, are currently major players in popular imagery (and, ironically, management policies) only. As symbols have grown and developed, cultural representations of wolves appear, at least in part, to have decoupled from ecological reality. In what ways have our conceptions of wolves changed from the extermination campaigns of the 19th century to the conservation efforts of our generation? To what extent have wolves, in modern times as well as earlier, symbolized human traits, religious ideas etc., and to what extent have they represented actual phenomena of nature? By offering a series of examples of animal representations involving wolves – in fiction and popular culture, in myths and in legends – I will inquire into these questions, aiming at approving our understanding of how human cultures has co-evolved not only with wolves, but further with a rich human imagery of these creatures, the infamous ancestors of man’s best

FRIEND.