Rencontre avec Serge Carles

Saturday, January 17 at 14 a.m.

Salle du Sénéchal 31 rue du Sénéchal 12200 Villefranche-de-Rouergue

A meeting with Serge Carles about his book "Istoria d'un sauvatjot – Je suis cet enfant" (Story of a Wild Boy – I Am That Child). A childhood between two languages in the 1950s and 1960s. Bilingual Occitan-French edition by Letras d'oc.

Serge Carles interweaves Occitan and French to present fragments of this autobiographical narrative from a child's perspective. A child discovering the world, step by step: the family home, the neighbors, the world of school, joys and sorrows, first dramas, daily life lived between two languages, Occitan (known as patois) and French. Very early on, the child questions language, the two languages: the one he proudly spoke everywhere outside of school (but which, mysteriously, his mother did not speak) and the language of school… Serge Carles shares his journey to entering the École Normale in Rodez with us in a sensitive and generous style.

Readings followed by a lively discussion moderated by Claude Loupias with the author and the audience: A paradoxical book. Full of restraint, it evokes empathy and emotion in the reader. A seemingly simple account, and the questions it raises.

Autograph session.