Looking for the killer : a history of orca encounters, 1861-1964 ...

• Main Author: Werner, Mark
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2023
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Killer Whale; Orca; Killer whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0397394; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0397394

This dissertation examines the emergence of the killer whale in popular and scientific discourses (1861-1964). Today, the orca is beloved, a potent symbol of nature and a marker of the tenuous future of our oceans in an age of climate catastrophe and ecological precarity. However, for much of western history, the orca has been a pariah, vilified for their predations and cast as a monstrous glutton. The dissertation seeks to understand the historical roots of the orca’s terrible reputation through an analysis of public discourses, fictional works, and scientific texts. This study traces discrete pieces of knowledge related to the orca’s character, seeking to understand how embodied experiences of both orcas and humans shaped the representations of the species over time. The dissertation features a set of case studies: a dissection of an orca in Denmark (1861), Antarctic encounters with orca in the early twentieth century (1910-1929), and a wayward orca who took up residence in a slough near Portland, Oregon ...