Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Nygren, Anna

Titel

Men i hjärtat fanns ingen annan. En studie om relationen mellan häst och flicka i Lena Furbergs Stallgänget på Tuva

Ist Teil von

• Samlaren (Uppsala), 2020, Vol.141, p.63

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Anna Nygren, Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion, University of Gothenburg A Special Place in the Heart: A Study of Girl-Horse Relationships in Lena Furberg’s Stallgänget på Tuva (Men i hjärtat fanns ingen annan. En studie om relationen mellan häst och flicka i Lena Furbergs Stallgänget på Tuva ) Stallgänget på Tuva is a cartoon series by Lena Furberg published in Min Häst between 1996 and 2008. Min Häst is a magazine whose main target group is girls interested in horses. The cartoon and the magazine are part of a specific literary genre and a broader culture of girl-horse relations. Furberg’s cartoon could be seen, on the one hand, as a good example of fictional horse stories, and, on the other hand, as a cartoon that has influenced the genre, and its readers. My purpose is to analyse the relation between girl and horse in Stallgänget på Tuva . Using theories from the field of Human-Animal Studies, I discuss different aspects of the relationship and the portrayal of it, such as the realistic contra the romantic view of the relationship, and the complex question of responsibility and power in the relation between human and non-human. For a long time, the genre of fictional horse stories had quite a low status in literary and academic context. More recent studies have enhanced its value and reputation. My analysis shows that Stallgänget på Tuva opens up for ideological as well as existential questions. Several episodes in the cartoon have a radical political potential, showing how girls in their relationship with horses protest against for example patriarchal and capitalist structures. At the same time, the relationship is established on the girls’ premises. What this article shows is the complexity of the girl-horse relationship, the political potential it may have and the power structures it may both reproduce and reveal.