Description
Acts of resistance are one of the ways in which nonhuman animals manifest their agency, their capacity to act in response to and exert an influence on contextual circumstances, relationships and individuals. As scholars have argued (Hribal, 2010; Colling, 2021; Broglio, 2022; Reggio, 2022), resistance can occur in a variety of forms and degrees of visibility and can unveil underlying dynamics and practices of exploitation and systemic asymmetries of power. Therefore, investigating how nonhuman animals’ resistance is represented allows for a discussion of how humans construct narratives to convey certain understandings of nonhuman animals’ acts which can destabilise conceptual premises and, sometimes, material devices of human dominance. My paper is drawn from a case study that I discuss in my PhD thesis, which studies the implications of the representation of horse point of view in live-action adaptations. Focusing on the character of Merrylegs, a pony who becomes friend with Black Beauty, the horse protagonist of Anna Sewell’s novel (Black Beauty, 1877), will allow me to consider how his act of resistance is differently portrayed in the novel and in one film adaptation (Thompson, 1994). Moreover, it will enable me to examine how the resistance enacted by the real pony (Legs) who was used to portray Merrylegs is talked about by the filmmaker. Combining animal studies with questions of representation and adaptation, I show that there are congruences between fictional narratives and discursive practices about horse resistance, which reveal anthropocentric ways of thinking about horse point of view and human-horse relationships.| Period | 30 May 2024 |
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| Event title | Narrating the Nonhuman: A Centre for Human Animal Studies PGR Research Symposium |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Ormskirk, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |