Intersectional Perspectives on Horse Stories : Pia Hagmar’s Series on Millan

• This paper focuses on horse stories as depictions of identity formation withinequestrian cultures. The material used is Pia Hagmar’s three books on Millan,published 2012-2014. In these stories, the construction of girlhood interconnectswith the becoming of a person used to handle the large and potentially dangerousanimal, which is the horse. In Susanna Hedenborg´s study of the horse story genre(2013), she shows the image of a non-traditional girl, used to hard and dirty work,but also a classical fearful and shy girl outside of the interaction with horses. InHelen Asklund’s study, the investigation uncovers a construction of girlhood incontrast with antagonistic characters (Asklund 2013). This paper uses anintersectional perspective to explore how the main characters in Pia Hagmar’sseries about Millan and their identities are shaped by their interaction with bothhorses and fellow humans of both sexes within equine cultures, a milieu whichallows re-negotiations of what being a girl implies. Adults are positively portrayedas caring providers of knowledge about horses or as facilitators of the ridinginterest through financial support, or negatively as dysfunctional persons unable toact as adults. Boys of similar age and with an interest in horses are portrayed asgood friends, sometimes more, but the girls are, first and foremost, interested inhorses. Between girl characters, there are often conflicts and jealousy. The studyaims at mapping out the formation of identity by highlighting power asymmetriessuch as gender, age, species, class and sexuality. 

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

horse stories

intersectionality

Pia Hagmar

hästböcker

intersektionalitet

Pia Hagmar

läsminnen

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)