Fractures of the Self and a Poetics of Metamorphosis: Toward an Autofiction of Survival in Helen Keller and Bertrand Besse Saige Cover Image

Fractures du sujet et poétique de la métamorphose : vers une autofiction de la survivance chez Helen Keller et Bertrand Besse Saige
Fractures of the Self and a Poetics of Metamorphosis: Toward an Autofiction of Survival in Helen Keller and Bertrand Besse Saige

Author(s): Karine Gros
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Fiction, Studies of Literature, Novel, Comparative Study of Literature, French Literature, American Literature
Published by: Софийски университет »Св. Климент Охридски«
Keywords: autofiction; survival; narrative identity; disability; metaphor; recognition

Summary/Abstract: This article compares The Story of My Life by Helen Keller and Le Guerrier immobile by Bertrand Besse Saige as two forms of writing survival. Beyond mere testimony, these narratives challenge classical autobiography by showing that the unity of the self becomes a necessary fiction after a major biographical rupture. Through language, metaphor, and the mediation of others, they make the self inhabitable again and recast autofiction as an anthropological and ethical necessity.

  • Issue Year: 12/2026
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 14-26
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: French
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