Att argumentera med och mot samtiden : En studie kring argumentation i Black Beauty

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study is to give a deeper understanding of Anna Sewell’s argumentation for a changed view on animals in her book Black Beauty and Sewell’s contribution to the animal welfare debate. The questions addressed in the study is: What arguments does Sewell present for a changed view on animals? What contemporary assumptions does Sewell challenge? Against what contemporary assumptions does her argument become effective? To answer these questions the material that are examined is Sewell’s book Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse (1877), first published in England. The theoretical perspective is that the book’s influence on the debate only is effective through two factors which is Sewell’s argumentation and the contemporary conditions that affected her way of arguing. These two factors become effective through interaction. The method used is a rhetorical analysis because it takes hold on text and context. Prior research has found through their perspective that the horses in Sewell’s book represent humans. But this study argues that the horses in Sewell’s book represent horses and that the book argues for a change in the way human’s attitude towards animals. The analysis in this study shows that Sewell’s argumentation can be divided into four categories of the contemporary ethics and context’s: Christianity, socialism, critique off fashion and machine. The conclusion drawn from the study is that Sewells arguments for a changed view on animals is based on these four categories where she must argue with and against them.