The Intertext as Discursive Subversion: Legături Bolnăvicioase/ Love Sick, Cecilia Ştefănescu
Approaching a topic yet unexplored in Romanian literature – a lesbian relationship – the novel Legături bolnăvicioase/ Love Sick opens the path for an interest stirring analysis on its thematic and narrative construction, but obstructed, nonetheless, by prejudice and prudishness. The love story b...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Casa Cărții de Știință
2014-12-01
|
Series: | Cultural Intertexts |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://cultural-intertexts.webnode.com/_files/200000242-851b7851b9/188-205%20Lungeanu%20-%20The%20Intertext%20as%20Discursive%20Subversion%20%E2%80%93%20Leg%C4%83turi%20Boln%C4%83vicioase%20Love%20Sick,%20Cecilia%20%C5%9Etef%C4%83nescu.pdf |
Summary: | Approaching a topic yet unexplored in Romanian literature – a lesbian relationship –
the novel Legături bolnăvicioase/ Love Sick opens the path for an interest stirring
analysis on its thematic and narrative construction, but obstructed, nonetheless, by
prejudice and prudishness. The love story between the narrator and Alex (her
girlfriend) is, ultimately, a pretext for a piece of écriture féminine, typified by language
and imaginative specificities. While following a feminine, autofictional pattern, the
novel enters an intertextual dialogue with a series of texts belonging to the (male) canon
of erotic literature. If the title alludes to a novel of “sentimental education”, reminding
of de Laclos’s masterpiece, Les Liaisons dangereuses ou lettres recueillies dans une
société et publiées pour l’instruction de quelques autres, the novelesque discourse
displays the intertextual game in an autofictional key, occasionally subverting male
patterns. Along these lines, the present paper aims at analysing the functioning of
intertextual mechanisms as means of subverting the male discourse, but also the
manner in which the feminine discourse challenges canonical conventions and
traditional reception. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2393-0624 2393-1078 |