Redefining Gender Roles through Care and Vulnerability in Żeromski’s The Faithful River
Document Type
Presentation
Location
Magnolia Room, LSU Student Union / Zoom
Start Date
5-3-2026 11:40 AM
End Date
5-3-2026 12:00 PM
Abstract
This paper examines Stefan Żeromski’s The Faithful River (1912) as a literary response to war that redefines gender, care, and human value through the representation of injury and caregiving. Set during the January Uprising of 1863, the novel centers on a wounded insurgent whose survival depends entirely on the care provided by Salomea, a young woman who shelters and nurses him at great personal risk. Rather than presenting war as a site of masculine heroism, Żeromski foregrounds bodily vulnerability, psychological distress, and dependence, destabilizing dominant ideals of strength, autonomy, and endurance. Drawing on theories of hegemonic masculinity (R. W. Connell) and ethics of care (Carol Gilligan), this paper argues that The Faithful River repositions care as a form of resistance to both military violence and rigid gender norms. The wounded male body becomes a site where masculine identity unravels, while Salomea’s caregiving emerges as an active, ethical, and courageous response to suffering. Her role as an improvised “nurse” or “doctor” challenges the authority of institutional medicine and wartime logic, particularly in moments when professional care is denied or deemed expendable. By situating the novel at the intersection of literary analysis and medical humanities, this paper demonstrates how literature gives narrative form to experiences of injury, trauma, and moral responsibility that often escape medical discourse. In doing so, it suggests that literature preserves vulnerability, reframes care as ethical action, and offers critical insight into the costs of war.
Redefining Gender Roles through Care and Vulnerability in Żeromski’s The Faithful River
Magnolia Room, LSU Student Union / Zoom
This paper examines Stefan Żeromski’s The Faithful River (1912) as a literary response to war that redefines gender, care, and human value through the representation of injury and caregiving. Set during the January Uprising of 1863, the novel centers on a wounded insurgent whose survival depends entirely on the care provided by Salomea, a young woman who shelters and nurses him at great personal risk. Rather than presenting war as a site of masculine heroism, Żeromski foregrounds bodily vulnerability, psychological distress, and dependence, destabilizing dominant ideals of strength, autonomy, and endurance. Drawing on theories of hegemonic masculinity (R. W. Connell) and ethics of care (Carol Gilligan), this paper argues that The Faithful River repositions care as a form of resistance to both military violence and rigid gender norms. The wounded male body becomes a site where masculine identity unravels, while Salomea’s caregiving emerges as an active, ethical, and courageous response to suffering. Her role as an improvised “nurse” or “doctor” challenges the authority of institutional medicine and wartime logic, particularly in moments when professional care is denied or deemed expendable. By situating the novel at the intersection of literary analysis and medical humanities, this paper demonstrates how literature gives narrative form to experiences of injury, trauma, and moral responsibility that often escape medical discourse. In doing so, it suggests that literature preserves vulnerability, reframes care as ethical action, and offers critical insight into the costs of war.