Infantilisation and Advocacy in the Writing Career of Alan Marshall

Abstract

As a child sitting at the feet of disabled author Frank Radcliffe, Alan Marshall knew that he would be an author too. He did not know then that writing was easy but style was complex, that prejudice against "cripples" was common, and that it would take four decades to find his way from writing the truth to writing his truth.

This paper explores the effects of the publication of Marshall’s book  I Can Jump Puddles (1955) on his writing career. I Can Jump Puddles was a fictionalised memoir of Marshall’s childhood, published after he had been a writer for twenty years. From then onwards, his publisher and audience clung to the infantilisation metanarrative of disability that they had imposed on the book and Marshall’s public image. Meanwhile, this experience deepened Marshall’s commitment to advocating for disabled people, and to telling the truth about his life. His commitment infused another twenty years of his writing which was less popular, but more nuanced.