Precarious belonging: blindness, masculinity, and work in Polish young adult literature of the 1970s and 1980s

This article explores the relationship between disability, identity, and productivity in two Polish young adult novels published under state socialism: Jak trudno kochać (How difficult it is to love) and Spotkania (The meetings). How Difficult it is to Love by Jerzy Szczygieł (1976) tells the story of a young blind man who, after living many years “unproductively” with his mother, decides to study and work. Published in 1986, Klementyna Sołonowicz-Olbrychska’s novel The Meetings also focuses on a blind male teenager who leaves his hometown to live with other blind students at a residential school where he plans a future profession. The two works are concerned with the processes of becoming disabled and becoming a part of the blind community. Crucially, it is productivity – the main value in a socialist state – that participates in the formation of disability identity and enables disabled men to form separate communities and workshops for disabled people.