Captivations: Animal Geographies in Literature, Film, Media, and Culture

Captivations: Animal Geographies in Literature, Film, Media, and Culture – Island Dynamics

Captivations: Animal Geographies in Literature, Film, Media, and Culture
04-07 October 2027, Odense, Kerteminde, & Copenhagen, Denmark
Theme How do the physical and conceptual spaces we construct for animals shape the boundaries of human identity, science, and culture? While cultural narratives frequently map human journeys across untamed landscapes, the containment, categorisation, and display of animal life—in literature, folklore, zoos, maps, film, cat cafés, and other spaces of representation—reveal a complex geography of cross-species encounter.
This interdisciplinary academic workshop investigates the symbolic, historical, and material enclosures that define human-animal relationships. We invite scholars to explore how humans have mapped, captured, and recontextualised the natural world, analysing the structures—mental, material, architectural, conceptual—that position animals as threats, spectacles, miracles, masters, companions, and dependents. How are animals kept alien or made familiar in works of literature and film? What roles do animals play in the construction of cultural narratives concerning the place of humanity in the world and the fate of humanity in the future? How are certain animals used as symbolic of nature or the wider environment (the adorable but vulnerable panda, the noble polar bear in a melting world, the insatiably inhuman great white shark)? How are animals alternately domesticated or made wild by cultural practices such as taxidermy, museum and zoo display, and the production of children’s toys? The workshop is interdisciplinary but may be especially interesting for researchers from literature studies, folklore studies, human geography, the environmental humanities, history, film studies, and anthropology.
During the workshop, we will visit and explore a range of relevant and evocative sites in the historic city of Odense, the charming seaside village of Kerteminde, and Copenhagen, including the Hans Christian Andersen House and Childhood Home, Odense Zoo, the Johannes Larsen Museum, and Tivoli Gardens.