Extraordinary Bodies in Liviu Rebreanuʼs Ion. A Reading through the Lens of Disability Studies
Extraordinary Bodies in Liviu Rebreanuʼs Ion. A Reading through the Lens of Disability Studies

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to develop a Disability Studies inspired reading of the Romanian canonical novel Ion by Liviu Rebreanu. Consequently, the paper focuses on the marginal figures endowed with physical impairments. On the one hand, the novel impressively depicts the ethnic and gender hierarchy in the village society of the time. The hierarchy is closely linked with degrees of disability: the physically impaired and mentally weak have at least one further characteristic of “disadvantage”. This could be a “race” or gender considered inferior and directly associated with a social disadvantage. On the other hand, the analysis reveals how the protagonist’s particularly potent body functions as a foil for contrast and comparison. Even though Ion is the protagonist, he dies in the end. Does the able-bodied then also have no future? A visionary answer lies in the symbolic link between the charactersʼ bodily condition and the Romanian state of nationhood. At the time when the novel is set, the very beginning of the 20th century, the modern Romanian nation, including all Romanians, had not yet been fulfilled. But Ion leaves behind an illegitimate child to be birthed by the apparently most able-bodied woman of the village Pripas. Therefore, he leaves a legacy – and with it, the chance of a prosperous future. This shows how the eugenic debates of the time were also internalized by Rebreanu, as biological strength and the will to survive are positively united and linked to the idea of the (Romanian) nation, while all others are given no chance.

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