‘You meant it so kindly’: What is Wrong with Pitying Disabled People?

The title of this year’s Leuven Disability Film Festival is ‘Ways of Belonging’, and, in this workshop, we will be discussing the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s novel ‘Beware of Pity’ (‘Ungeduld des Herzens’ in the original), which was published in 1939. This novel tells the story of what happens to Edith von Kekesfalva, an Austro-Hungarian noblewoman, when, shortly after becoming disabled, she encounters Anton Hofmiller, a young and socially awkward cavalry officer. Throughout the novel, Edith is encouraged to believe that a ‘cure’ is her only route back to social acceptance – her only ‘way of belonging’. This has meant that Hofmiller’s treatment of Edith has not been interpreted as what it is – behaviour. Following the novel’s reissue in English in 2006, this worrying attitude has been perpetuated by many reviews of the novel, in which Hofmiller’s assertion that he is Edith’s victim (not the other way around) has gone completely unchallenged.

There is no sign language interpreter available for this event.