%0 Journal Article 
%A Wieme, Marie-Theres
%T “This series will take you to the last wildernesses”—Planet Earth and the Question of the Animal
%D 2013
%@ 2171-9594
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10017/20270
%X Although generally marketed as disinterested and scientific sources of information, blue chip nature documentaries actively participate in both the maintenance and subversion of the nature-culture dichotomy. Using the award-winning BBC mega series Planet Earth (2006) as its example, the following article illustrates how non-human animals are presented as other to humans, but also argues that the degree and mechanisms used vary depending on the familiarity of both the species and habitat in question. In keeping with current ecofeminist theories, particular attention is also paid to scenes where the hierarchy reveals traces of its own production, which are revealed by a close reading of some sequences from three different episodes of the series. These traces allow a perceptive audience to question the othering of the non-human. One particularly potent problematisation of these narratives occurs whenever the series appeals to the audience’s emotional engagement, since such an emotional appeal also weakens the documentary’s overt claim to disinterested objectivity. Thus, on a metalevel, the article also furthers research into how documentaries can function as emotional machines.

%K Planet Earth (2006)
%K Non-human othering
%K Emotional involvement
%K Maintenance and deconstruction of nature-culture divide
%K Otredad de no-humanos
%K Implicación emocional
%K Mantenimiento y deconstrucción de la dicotomía naturaleza-cultura
%K Literatura
%K Literature
%K Medio ambiente
%K Environmental science
%~ Biblioteca Universidad de Alcala