In a horse’s eye. Horizons of a biography

Abstract

The article talks about a situation of animals (especially horses) during military action of the World War I. The author, who chooses viewpoint of non-anthropocentric history, refers to the work of Éric Baratay Le point de vue animal. Une autre version de l’histoire [The Animal Point of View. Another version of history] and war diaries written by Ivan Cassagnau, a French artilleryman during 1914 and 1916, she confronts those two books with children’s novel War Horse written by Michael Morpurgo. In Poland this book is known as The time of war and it has been published in 2011, soon after it’s film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, has appeared. The author of the article proposes a critical interpretation of the novel, she notes the quality (and flows) of the narration from the animal’s viewpoint, she wonders, if the writer managed to build convincing war biography of a horse, finally she highlights a pacifistic message of the book.