Rousseau's Legacy

This study focuses on the emergence, with Jean Jacques Rousseau, of a new and influential type of writer who specialized in revolutionary, sociopolitical critique. Close readings of the work of a number of major French writers are described.

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Rousseau's Legacy is an original and ambitious work of literary scholarship that focuses on the emergence with Rousseau of a new and influential paradigm of the writer who brings together revolutionary sociopolitical critique and `confessionalism'. Combining a wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary theory with an informed interest in sociopolitical context and cultural history, the author goes on to explore the persistent importance of the Rousseauist paradigm through the close reading of works by a number of major French writers from Stendahl to Duras, Althusser, and Foucault.