INTERSEXUAL DISGUISE AND METAMORPHOSIS IN THE TALE ”ILEANA SINZIANA” Cover Image

INTERSEXUAL DISGUISE AND METAMORPHOSIS IN THE TALE ”ILEANA SINZIANA”
INTERSEXUAL DISGUISE AND METAMORPHOSIS IN THE TALE ”ILEANA SINZIANA”

Author(s): Carmen Ioana Popa
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Romanian Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: disguise; totality; metamorphosis; self-knowledge; initiation;

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to bring in attention, the intersexual transvestitions into the fairy tale of Petre Ispirescu, Iliana Simziana. The intersexual disguises are the way in which the human being wish to accede his half and wishes to have a coexistence of primordial elements, an accomplishment of the androgynous, for a short period of time. These disguises to the primitive people become a rite of passage, a way to advance on the road of maturity, a road that can only be continued when the neophytic was introduced in the sacred, and he knew the totality. In the Petre Inspirescu´s fairy tale, the young emperor´s daughter has an initial journey to self-knowledge. Her disguising in her father´s clothing is a preparation of the metamorphosis which will take place at the end of the text. In this point, we can make a parallel with the mythological figure Iphis from the Metamorphoses by Ovidiu. Also, in this case, the young girl who is disguised as a man, transforms into a real man to seal her love with the predestined one. These intersexual disguises allow the human being to get out of themselves and to reintegrate into the cosmos, so they can know the totality.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 11
  • Page Range: 685-690
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Romanian