Troll i hjässan och hidet : Ekologiska gränsöverskridningar och antropocentrism i Stefan Spjuts Stallo (2012)

Sammanfattning: The depths of the forest carry ancient secrets. In the novel Stallo (2012), written by Stefan Spjut, trolls go unnoticed – hiding in plain sight through metamorphosis. They shapeshift into animals that are already known to exist and with telepathic abilities they nestle their way into the minds of the characters. Through these qualities the trolls in the novel continuously transgress and dissolve the world as the characters know it. In the novel the reader gains information only through a human perspective. The anthropocentric narrative presents a world similar to the reader’s – one built up around strict frameworks and sets of species. Where man is viewed as separate from nature and where all living creatures are expected to behave in a certain way. I argue that by dissolving these frames, the trolls in Stallo act as an implication to question through which lens the reader view the world. What I aim to show in the following essay is how Stallo, through the portrayal of trolls and their ecological transgressions, can be considered as criticism towards a view of nature as something separate to man and therefore also a criticism towards an anthropocentric view of the world.