Motyw świętego szaleńca a obraz osób z niepełnosprawnością intelektualną – próba przekroju

Magdalena Miszczuk

doi:10.18778/8331-985-8

The Motif of the Holy Fool and Representations of Intellectual Disability: An Attempt at a Cross-Sectional Overview

Magdalena Miszczuk

University of Warsaw

Publication:

Representations of Disability in Cultural Spaces

Pages: 87-92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/8331-985-8.07

Keywords: disability, inclusion, otherness, stereotype, subjectivity

Published: 30 June 2026

Categories: Polish philology, Open Access

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The article focuses on showing the similarities between the leading romantic characters and the Fool of Christ figure. A Holly Fool is a type of saint in Orthodox culture. It consists of extreme asceticism and renunciation of social life, as well as the deliberate feigning of “stupidity.” For the romantics, this motif has become a cause for ennoblement in the culture of all kinds of disorders and mental illness.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Miszczuk, M. (2026). The Motif of the Holy Fool and Representations of Intellectual Disability: An Attempt at a Cross-Sectional Overview. In M. Gajak-Toczek (Ed.), Representations of Disability in Cultural Spaces (pp. 87-92). Lodz University Press. https://doi.org/10.18778/8331-985-8.07