Saddening Encounters. Children and Animals in Romanian Fiction and Beyond

Abstract

"The aim of this essay is to give some impetus to a re-reading of classic Romanian literature by taking an approach inspired by Animal and Childhood Studies to larger questions of ideological currents and social cultural phenomena in the Romanian society. I chose four short texts by Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești, Elena Farago, and Ion Barbu that originate from the beginning of the 20th century and are currently considered as part of the Romanian literary canon. They are, at least partially, addressed to children and they all contain violent human-animal encounters. The fact that this element of violence has not prevented the texts from becoming and continuing to be canonical adds a new dimension to Animal Studies scholarship, which has so far mainly mirrored the increasingly “civilised” human-animal relation in countries with an early developing bourgeois social strata where animals became pets and thus friends and family members. The study also challenges the existing interpretations of Romanian literature: instead of applying aesthetic criteria, a thematic thread is followed with reflections on the social relevance of the recurring topos which seems to store a more deeply anchored cultural experience. A closer look at both the “disempowered and oppressed positions” (Feuerstein) that children and animals occupy in both literary texts and real-life society poses the practical question of how greater harmony can be created in the future. Keywords: animal studies, childhood studies, human-animal encounters, violence, Romanian literature, Barbu, Brătescu-Voinești, Farago "