Acasă Articole RTR Corpul invalid în modernismul periferic: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, între import și autohtonism
Corpul invalid în modernismul periferic: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, între import și autohtonism
Rezumat
The Invalid Body in The Peripheric Modernism: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, between Import and Autochtonism
Abstract: This article presents a socio-literary analysis of the “invalid body” as depicted in Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu’s novels Disheveled Virgins (Fecioarele despletite, 1926) and Concert from Bach’s Music (Concert din muzică de Bach, 1927), within the context of the rise of eugenicist ideologies in interwar Romania. By comparing these portrayals of disability with representations of illness in other contemporary European novels, I explore the anachronistic relationship between the peripheral literary space of Romania and the central literary cultures of England and France. The methodology combines disability studies with key theoretical frameworks, including dysmodernism (Davis, 2019) and the concepts of the dys-/disarticulated (Berger, 2014), which are instrumental in understanding the depiction of the disabled body in 20th century European literature. I argue that the scientific discourses serve as a key factor in the social marginalization of the invalid characters in Papadat-Bengescu’s novels, where illness is not portrayed as the result of personal or psychological trauma but rather as a direct consequence of genetic inheritance. Through this analysis, I aim to highlight the terminological and conceptual differences between the literary center and periphery, focusing on the cultural reception of Papadat-Bengescu’s work in Romania and its social and ideological implications within the broader European context.
Keywords: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu, modern novel, disability studies, eugenism, invalid body.
Bibliografie
Berger, James. The Disarticulate: Language, Disability, and Narratives of Modernity. New York: NYU Press, 2014.
Boz, Lucian. “Caleidoscopul vieții intelectuale.” Adevărul, no. 16135 (August 1936). Digiteca Arcanum. https://adt.arcanum.com/ro/discover/.
Bucur, Maria. Eugenie și modernizare în România interbelică [Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania] Iași: Polirom, 2005.
Călinescu, Matei. Cinci Fețe ale Modernității. Bucharest: Polirom, 2017.
Chiorean, Maria. “Unde sunt disability studies” [Where are Disabilities Studies?]. In Pentru o nouă cultură critică românească, edited by Alex Goldiș, Christian Moraru, and Andrei Terian. Cluj-Napoca: Tact, 2024.
Coman, Daniel. “Devianță psihologică și stil cognitiv în Enigma Otiliei de G. Călinescu (1938).” Transilvania, no. 6–7 (2022): 73–81. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2022.06-07.08.
Coman, Daniel. “Reprezentări ale deviației psihologice în Concert din muzică de Bach, de Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu.” Transilvania, no. 6 (2021): 35–39. https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2021.06.04.
Corbin, Alain, Jean-Jacques Courtine, and Georges Vigarello, eds. Istoria Corpului III. Mutațiile Privirii. Secolul XX. Bucharest: Art, 2009.
Danius, Sara. The Senses of Modernism: Technology, Perception, and Aesthetics. London: Cornell University Press, 2002.
Davis, Lennard. Dismodernism: Disability and the Missing Body of the Aesthetic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Dobrescu, Dem I. “Societatea Română de Antropologie” [The Romanian Anthropology Society]. Adevărul, vol. 51, no. 16450 (1937).
Doyle, Laura, and Laura Winkiel, eds. “Introduction: The Global Horizons of Modernism.” In Geomodernisms: Race, Modernism, Modernity. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Dumitru, Teodora. “Conceptul lovinescian de intelectualizare a literaturii față cu ipoteza postbelică a țăranului intelectualizat” [Lovinescu’s Concept of Literature “Intellectualization” Against the Post-War Hypothesis of the “Intellectualized” Peasant]. Transilvania, no. 2 (2021): https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2021.02.04.
Dumitru, Teodora. “Social Class Difference and the Evolution of Romanian Literature from Lovinescu’s Perspective (1924-1929).” In Ruralism and Literature in Romania, edited by Ștefan Baghiu, Vlad Pojoga, and Maria Sass. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2019.
Porzak, Simon. “Inverts and invertebrates: Darwin, Proust, and nature’s queer heterosexuality.” Diacritics 41, no. 4 (2013).
Ghalandari, Sara, and Leila Jamili. “Mental Illness and Manic-Depressive Illness in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.” Journal of Novel Applied Sciences 3, no. 5 (2014): 482–489.
Goldiș, Alex, Christian Moraru, and Andrei Terian, eds. Pentru o nouă cultură critică Românească [Towards a New Romanian Critical Culture]. Cluj-Napoca: Tact, 2024.
Goldwyn, Adam J., and Renée M. Silverman, eds. Mediterranean Modernism: Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Hitchins, Keith. România 1866-1947. Bucharest: Polirom, 2013.
Holdrinet, R.S.G. “Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui.” Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui 5 (2007). https://www.jstor.org/stable/44866290.
Juvan, Marko. “Peripheral Modernism and the World-System: Slovenian Literature and Theory of the Nineteen-Sixties.” Slavica Tergestina 23 (December 2019).
Liu, Yongsheng. “Darwin and Mendel: The Historical Connection.” In Advances in Genetics 102. Cardiff, UK: Cardiff University, 2018.
Lovinescu, Eugen. Istoria civilizației române moderne [The History of Modern Romanian Civilization]. Vol. 1. Bucharest: Minerva, 1992.
Manolescu, Nicolae. Istoria critică a literaturii române [The Critical History of Romanian Literature]. Pitești: Paralela 45, 2008.
Miele Rodas, Julia. “Tiny Tim, Blind Bertha, and the Resistance of Miss Mowcher: Charles Dickens and the Uses of Disability.” Dickens Studies Annual 34 (2004): http://www.jstor.org/stable/44372091.
Moldovan, Iuliu. Biopolotica. Cluj: Biblioteca Universității din Cluj, 1926.
Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on World Literature.” New Left Review 1 (Jan/Feb 2000).
Müller, Florin. Socialism și fascism în România. Către o Istorie Intelectuală [Socialism and Fascism in Romania: Towards an Intellectual History]. Bucharest: Editura Universității din București, 2020.
Law, Jonathan, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Papadat-Bengescu, Hortensia. Concert din muzică de Bach [Concert of Bach’s Music]. Bucharest: Institutului Cultural Român, 2004.
Papadat-Bengescu, Hortensia. Fecioarele despletite [Disheveled Virgins]. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 2019.
Proust, Marcel. În căutarea timpului pierdut. Sodoma și Gomora [In Search of Lost Time: Sodom and Gomorrah]. Bucharest: Art, 2011.
Sasu, Aurel, and Mariana Vartic. Romanul românesc în interviuri. O istorie autobiografică [The Romanian Novel in Interviews: An Autobiographical History], vol. I. Bucharest: Minerva, 1985.
Sbârnă, Gheorghe. Constituțiile României. Studii [Romania’s Constitution]. Târgoviște: Cetatea de Scaun, 2012.
Sontag, Susan. Boala ca metaforă [Illness as Metaphor]. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia, 1995.
Tudor, A. “Rubrica literare artistice.” Zorile, no. 274 (February 5, 1936). https://adt.arcanum.com/ro/view/Zorile_1936_02/?query=max+blecher+&pg=33&layout=s.
Turda, Marius. Eugenism și modernitate. Națiune, rasă și biopolitică în Europa (1870-1950). Iași: Polirom, 2014.
Turda, Marius. În căutarea romanului perfect. Specific național, degenerare rasială și selecție socială în România modernă. Iași: Polirom, 2024.
Woolf, Virginia. Spre far. Orlando. Bucharest: Adevărul, 2009.
Yakushko, Oksana. “Eugenics and its Evolution in the History of Western Psychology: A Critical Archival Review.” Psychother Politics (2019): https://doi.org/10.1002/ppi.1495.
