Renegade relations

Abstract

The paper aims to describe the character of the renegade, understood as the exemplary figure of one who betrays the pact of loyalty to one’s own community, putting its existence at risk by adopting the behaviour and expressions of the oppressors. Starting from the first occurrences of the term recorded in Romanian around the middle of the 19th century, the analysis highlights how the literary representation of the renegade changes over the following decades. In particular, the first part of the paper is devoted to outlining the representations of the renegade in the writings of Romantic authors (Bălcescu, Bolliac, Bolintineanu, Alexandrescu), while the second part discusses the significance of the term “renegade” in Liviu Rebreanu’s prose set during the First World War.