Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract

Through a linguistic and folkloristic investigation of written and video-recorded narratives about wild animal encounters, we explore how humans relate to the wild, and how they construct social positions for themselves and non-human animals.

Paper long abstract

From research on encounters between humans and domesticated non-human animals we know that humans tend to position their non-human interlocutors as sentient and thinking beings. Domesticated animals are often treated as family members and (potential) friends, with their own agency and rights. At the same time, there is a built-in un-equal structure in that humans own the agenda for how meetings are to be organized, and that there can be ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways for non-humans to e.g., greet (Nilsson & Norrthon 2024).

When encountering wild non-human animals, these claims on the meeting agenda dissolves. Depending on how wild or rare a species is, narratives range from divine and even life changing (in encounters with e.g., lynx or wolverines in the wilderness) to stories very similar to those about domesticated animals (in meeting e.g., hedgehogs and squirrels in the backyard) as well as narratives of disgust and distance (when encountering e.g., rats or lice in the home) (see also Nylund Skog 2018, Ekström & Kaijser 2018). In that regard, the narratives are closely related to where the encounter takes place.

Drawing on post-human theory (Buller 2014, Haraway 2003, 2008, Meijer 2019, Wolfe 2010), we investigate written and video-recorded narratives about wild animal encounters, and explore how humans relate to the wild, and how they construct social positions both for themselves and non-human animals.