Contested Parental Authority in Jules Vallès's L'Enfant

Abstract

This article examines Jules Vallès's portrayal of an abusive parent-child relationship in his 1879 novel L'Enfant, showing how the author's narrative techniques, in particular his use of an unstable first-person narrative voice, undermine the notion of parental authority. Situating this novel in its historical context, I show that although it was published a decade before France's first law protecting children from physical abuse, authors of childrearing guides from as early as the 1820s were already advocating moral as opposed to corporal punishments for children. Not only does Vallès cast his critical eye on parent-child dynamics but also he widens the novel's scope by creating an analogy between the authority of parents in the home and that exercised by the State in schools. Moreover, through the young protagonist's rejection of his parents’ professional aspirations for him, Vallès's provocative novel challenges the classic nineteenth-century narrative of progress through upward social mobility.