UiT Environmental humanities gathering #25: On Fiction, Animals, and Making Sense of Climate Science
UiT Environmental humanities gathering #25: On, Fiction, Animals, and Making Sense of Climate Science
This time we will have two seminars, one at 10.15 and one at 13.15, plus a social afterwards. You are welcome to the whole day, or as much or as little as you can :)
Venue change: the afternoon session will take place in Breivikleia N119.
In the morning (10.15–11.45), visiting PhD researcher Fany Magraner-Frau from the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain will present and discuss her paper Interactions between humans and animals in sentimental fiction 1450–1550.
The presence of animals in literature dates back to the origin of literature itself. During the extended period of the Middle Ages, they were the protagonists of bestiaries, hunting books, and stories. My project, however, focuses on the treatment they received in a genre that enjoyed great fame between 1450 and 1550: sentimental fiction. What kind of animals appear in unfortunate stories of love between knights and ladies situated in a time and space that is usually indefinite or mythic? Do they only have a symbolic meaning, or is there also room for a more realistic intervention? This presentation will concentrate on dogs, horses, and birds, as they appear most frequently in the texts. In this literary journey from the 21st century to the late medieval period we will discover the similarities and differences regarding the consideration of these animals. Maybe there will be some surprises.
After lunch (13.15–14.45), we welcome presenter / session leader Paula Ryggvik Mikalsen from the Centre for Women's and Gender Studies who will lead a talk and discussion entitled Arctic Futurisms - Or How Fiction Makes Sense of Climate Science.
This talk will focus on the literary aspects of the third work package in Arctic Auditories - Hydrospheres in the High North. While Arctic Auditories is centered around the sonic this presentation is rooted in text and language, in the speculative and curious world of fiction, and other forms of written text. We will be selecting the texts for this work package for their attention to water, the future, the sensory, and relationships between humans and earth-kin. Still a work in progress, this presentation will talk about the feminist methodologies that help in our interdisciplinary work, and how the empirical data – the interview material collected through the soundwalks – connects with academic literature, and various kinds of fiction. Proposing a methodology of diffractive reading alongside empirical and collaborative writing practices, we hope to create a space that liberates its participants to imagine sustainable futures in different ways.
Readings (both quite short, but neither obligatory!):
Geerts, E. and van der Tuin, I. (2016). Diffraction and reading diffractively. New Materialism: How Matter Comes to Matter. https://newmaterialism.eu/almanac/d/diffraction.html
Haugaard Simonsen, J. B. and Frank, S. (2022). Vi kan bruge litteraturen til at forstå klimaforandringerne. Syddansk Universitet. https://www.sdu.dk/da/nyheder/litteratur-og-klimaforandringer
We plan to continue the discussion after hours in a more social location, with a view to considering future directions and possibilities for the EnvHums group, so if you have time to join us for that, please join at 14.45 at the latest or send an email to Kate.Maxwell@uit.no for details. There will be time during the day to attend the Chewing on Sustainability lunch from 12–13 for those who are interested :) https://uit.no/tavla/artikkel/842989/chewing_on_sustainability
Please register, particularly if you want to attend on zoom or have allergies (or anything else we should know about for the social).
Zoom link afternoon:
Topic: EnvHums 25 afternoon
Time: Mar 20, 2024 01:00 PM Oslo
Join Zoom Meeting
https://uit.zoom.us/j/65829834334?pwd=RVV1NFZkS040TjN4YXVNVzJpQnNCdz09
Meeting ID: 658 2983 4334
Password: 079591