The apotheosis of intellectual disability in fictional literature

Intellectual disability is an extremely complex phenomenon and can therefore be considered on the basis of either intellectual malfunction patterns and adaptability disorders, or in the optics of the socio-cultural construct. The ephemeral truth about the essence of the phenomenon of intellectual disability is formulated in a fluid and dynamic way at the border of culture and biology which justify the fact of analyzing it on the field of medical humanities. The broad perspective of the view of the phenomenon outlined in the first part of the paper provides the basis for understanding the image of a character with intellectual disabilities in fictional literature. The primary objective of the research was to get to know and understand the apotheosis of intellectual disability in selected works of fine literature.

Basis assumptions of the hermeneutic method were applied in this research. Hermeneutics is a specific methodology on literary grounds, as it does not provide the user with ready-made techniques or tools for text analysis, emphasizing the lack of universal means of deciphering the meanings of literature. The meaning of the text becomes a reference developed by interpretation, which is a question of the hypotheses generated by the recipient. The area of analysis consists primarily of the categories of wisdom and good outlined in the silhouettes of the presented literary heroes.

As a result, characteristic ways of understanding wisdom and good in relation to characters with intellectual disabilities were identified, and thus the image of apotheosis was outlined.