Cabin Fever: A Historical Study of Nature Perceptions in Media Representations of Norwegian Cabin Tradition

Abstract

Cabins have a special place in the hearts of Norwegians. A main aspect of cabins is their function as meeting places between nature and civilization. It is therefore meaningful to read the cabin as a symbol of Norwegian identity and nature relations. Cabins are however in transition, and the objective of this thesis is to gain better awareness of the evolution of cabins in Norwegian culture and what this evolution might signify in terms of Norwegians understandings of nature.This thesis provides a qualitative semiotic analysis of nature in Norwegian cabin representations in selected media. It aims to answer the following research question: What is the role of nature in Norwegian mass media cabin representations in the 1960s and today (2013-14)? To answer this question this thesis provides a semiotic analysis of selected media: a cabin issue of Bonytt (1963), six articles in A-Magasinet (1964-67) and three issues of Hyttemagasinet (2013-2014). This semiotic study is coupled with a theoretical framework inspired by phenomenology: Tim Ingold s (2014) Dwelling Perspective, an alternative theoretical framework to understanding modern life as a negotiation between the dwelling and commodity perspectives. By applying this framework I attempt to offer an analysis of cabin representations of nature experiences in my data. I hope my findings can offer better insight in terms of Norwegian understandings of nature and at the same time contribute to a broader field of research on dwelling in modernity.