The purpose of this essay is to analyse the human-horse relationship in the first trilogy of Soul Riders, written by Helena Dahlgren. The metaphor 'centaur' is used as a central theme to discuss and analyse how the relationship can create a new body in relation to space and to John Dewey’s concept of 'Growth'. Supported by Jonna Bornemark's philosophical concept of the centaur, John Dewey's concept of growth, and Yi-Fu Tuan's concept of place, I aim to explore the young protagonist's understanding of their new body as they experience their everyday world, Jorvik, and the unknown magical world of Pandoria. Understanding the centaur as a concept that breaks with dualistic ideas about human and non-human, adult and child, body, and space as opposite binarities, I argue, results in a richer interpretation of the human-horse relationship as a complex communication between two subjects. I argue that the narrative in Soul Riders supports the notion that horses (and other animals) should be considered as subjects on the same level as humans, and that no individual is superior to another. By understanding the obligations in the interaction with a horse, creating the centaur becomes achievable, and the young girls can grow in their role as adults and occupy a position in adulthood, without dismissing childhood. I analyse the centaur through the different perspectives of the horse as a subject, of childhood and adulthood, of the social environment, and of the experienced space. My conclusion is that a dissolution of the dualistic concepts is needed to better understand the human-horse body, the centaur, in the first trilogy of Soul Riders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-189509 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Burgman, Yenn |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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