Narrative Strategies Giving Voice to the Silenced Subject

The Horse in Fiction for Children

  • Ann-Sofie Persson
Keywords: fiction about horses, ecocriticism, posthumanism, animal studies, anthropomorphism, allomorphism, othering, silenced subject, voice, narration, Pia Hagmar, Marie Louise Rudolfsson

Abstract

This article uses an ecocritical, posthumanist animal studies approach to fiction about horses for children and young adults in order to show how different narrative strategies co-exist within a framework of silence versus voice and Othering versus anthropomorphizing. The examples are taken from two Swedish series of books: the stories of Vitnos (1971–1980) by Marie Louise Rudolfsson, and those about Klara (1999–2008) by Pia Hagmar. The study shows that regardless of the narrative form chosen, be it placing the horse as a first-person narrator or introducing a human narrator and focalizer, the result is quite similar. The horse is alternately anthropomorphized and depicted as Other, many times through the technique of allomorphism, placing the horse above the human being. 

Published
2020-12-08
How to Cite
Persson, A.-S. (2020). Narrative Strategies Giving Voice to the Silenced Subject: The Horse in Fiction for Children. Barnboken, 43. https://doi.org/10.14811/clr.v43.539
Section
Theme: Silence and Silencing in Children's Literature