The Consciousness of the Feral Child as a Laboratory for Self-Writing: The Case of Victor of Aveyron

Abstract

Recent rewritings of the story of Victor of Aveyron for young readers have focused less on his « wildness » and more on his cognitive disability, which has been likened to autism spectrum disorder. By adopting the form of self-writing, the novels by Mordicai Gerstein, Mary Losure, and Paule du Bouchet attempt to get as close as possible to the boy’s inaccessible inner world. In Victor, Gerstein gives voice to both witnesses and to the conscience of the wild child. Mary Losure, in Wild Boy, The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron, places the rewriting of the story at the service of education for tolerance and inclusion, while promoting child agency. Lastly, in J'ai rencontré l'enfant sauvage by Paule du Bouchet, Julie Guérin’s diary transforms her into an absolute witness and bestows upon her an almost authorial role in the scientific and educational experiment. In these three novels, the aim is less to make a diagnosis than to offer young readers a moral laboratory in which to approach neurodivergent otherness. The essential issue might be less about producing knowledge or designing educational methods than about accepting difference.