The Nature of Rousseau’s ‘Rêveries’

physical, human, aesthetic

Volume: 2008:03

Series: SVEC

Volume Editors: John C. O'Neal

Series Collaborators: Jacques Berchtold, Université de Paris III—Sorbonne Nouvelle; Alexandra Cook, University of Hong Kong; Jean-Luc Guichet, Collège International de Philosophie, Paris and Centre Georges Chevrier, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon; Kevin Inston, University College London; Dorothy Johnson, University of Ioawa, IA; Natasha Lee, Princeton University, NJ; Laurence Mall, University of Illinois, IL; Carole Martin, Texas State University—San Marcos, TX; Fiona Miller, Arkansas State University, AR; Ourida Mostefai, Boston College, MA; John C. O'Neal, Hamilton College, NY; Jean-François Perrin, Université Stendhal—Grenoble 3; Sylvie Romanowski, Northwestern University, IL; John T. Scott, University of California, Davis, CA; Philip Stewart, Duke University, NC; James Swenson, Rutgers University, NJ; Zev Trachtenberg, University of Oklahoma, OK.<br>

Publication Date: 2008

Pages: 298

ISBN: 978-0-7294-0928-5

Price: £70

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About

Research on Rousseau’s innovative last work is changing direction. Long situated in a context of autobiographical writing, its moral and philosophical content is now a major critical preoccupation. The Nature of Rousseau’s ‘Rêveries’: physical, human, aesthetic brings together the work of international specialists to explore new approaches to the defining feature – the ‘nature’ – of the Rêveries.

In essays which range from studies of botany or landscape painting to thematic or stylistic readings, authors re-examine Rousseau’s intellectual understanding of and personal relationship with different conceptions of nature. Drawing connections between this text and earlier theoretical writings, authors analyse not only the philosophical and personal implications of Rousseau’s reflections on the outer world but also and his attempts to examine and validate both his own nature and that of ‘l’homme naturel’.

In The Nature of Rousseau’s ‘Rêveries’: physical, human, aesthetic the contributors offer new insights into the character of Rousseau’s last major work and suggest above all its experimental, elusive quality, hovering between inner and outer worlds, escape and fulfilment, experience and writing. They underline the unique richness of the Rêveries, a work to be situated not simply at the end of Rousseau’s life, but at the very centre of his thought.

List of tables
List of illustrations
John C. O’Neal, Introduction
I. Nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries
Alexandra Cook, The ‘Septième promenade’ of the Rêveries: a peculiar account of Rousseau’s botany?
Alexandra Cook, Appendix
Dorothy Johnson, Rousseau and landscape painting in France
John c. O’Neal, Nature as refuge in Rousseau’s Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
II. Nature and human nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries
Jean-François Perrin, ‘Les opérations que font les physiciens’: physique de l’homme naturel selon les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
Jean-Luc Guichet, Nature et origine: l’accident de Ménilmontant
Natasha Lee, A dream of human nature
III. Human nature in Rousseau’s Rêveries
Jacques Berchtold, Le carrosse et le jardinier: nature et dénaturation dans la ‘Deuxième promenade’
Fiona Miller, Forced into freedom: Rousseau’s strange self-portrait in the Rêveries
John T. Scott, Rousseau’s quixotic quest in the Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
Laurence Mall, ‘Dieu est juste; il veut que je souffre; et il sait que je suis innocent’: le problème du mal dans les Rêveries de Rousseau
Sylvie Romanowski, Un étranger pas comme les autres: la voix du maître
Philip Stewart, ‘Ebranlé mais non convaincu’: Rousseau parmi les philosophes
Kevin Inston, Nature as the possibility of change and resistance
Ourida Mostefai, De Vincennes à Ménilmontant: promenade et projet autobiographique dans les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
Zev Trachtenberg, The exile and the moss-trooper: Rousseau and Thoreau on walking in nature
IV. The formal or aesthetic nature of Rousseau’s Rêveries
James Swenson, The solitary walker and the invention of lyrical prose
Carole Martin, De rêveries en promenades: essai d’étude générique à partir des Rêveries du promeneur solitaire
Summaries
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

Eighteenth-century studies

The variety of Rousseaus we get here is testimony to the ‘richness and complexity’ of the Rêveries and of Rousseau’s conception of nature.

Eighteenth-century fiction

Laurence Mall’s ground-breaking piece is at once profound, eloquently argued, and well written. […] This essay deserves to be read by anyone interested in the eighteenth century and should be mandatory reading for all Rousseau scholars.