The Department of Scandinavian presents a talk by:

Henning Howlid Wærp | Professor of Nordic Literature at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway

This illustrated account of Polar exploration was originally published in Norway in 1903 and in English translation in 1904. It tells the story of the four years spent by Otto Sverdrup (1854-1930) and his crew in surveying and charting the seas and coastlines of the Arctic. In June 1898, Sverdrup took the ship Fram and a crew including several scientists to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, where they overwintered for four years. In his talk, Dr. Henning Wærp will look into Sverdrup’s encounters with animals during the expedition, how they are depicted,and how it affects the protagonist. In one respect, Sverdrup is on an imperialistic mapping expedition. But he is also sensitive to the nature and wildlife he encounters. Do we see signs of an interspecies relationship in Sverdrup’s writings about animals in the Arctic?

 

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