Rousseau's Republican Romance

by Elizabeth Rose Wingrove

Overview

In Rousseau's Republican Romance, Elizabeth Wingrove combines political theory and narrative analysis to argue that Rousseau's stories of sex and sexuality offer important insights into the paradoxes of democratic consent. She suggests that despite Rousseau's own protestations, "man" and "citizen" are not rival or contradictory ideals. Instead, they are deeply interdependent. Her provocative reconfiguration of republicanism introduces the concept of consensual nonconsensuality--a condition in which one wills the circumstances of one's own domination. This apparently paradoxical possibility appears at the center of Rousseau's republican polity and his romantic dyad: in both instances, the expression and satisfaction of desire entail a twin experience of domination and submission.


Drawing on a wide variety of Rousseau's political and literary writings, Wingrove shows how consensual nonconsensuality organizes his representations of desire and identity. She demonstrates the inseparability of republicanism and accounts of heterosexuality in an analysis that emphasizes the sentimental and somatic aspects of citizenship. In Rousseau's texts, a politics of consent coincides with a performative politics of desire and of emotion. Wingrove concludes that understanding his strategies of democratic governance requires attending to his strategies of symbolization. Further, she suggests that any understanding of political practice requires attending to bodily practices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400823543
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	02/22/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	399 KB

About the Author

Elizabeth Wingrove is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Texts and Translations xiii
INTRODUCTION How to Engender a Political Subject 3
CHAPTER ONE Savage Sensibilities 24
Impossible Beginnings 24
Perfecting Pity 30
(Re)Constituting Nature 37
State Power and Servile Desire 44
"To suffer is the first thing he ought to learn..." 54
CHAPTER TWO Object Lessons 58
Sensing the Difference 58
To What Does Sex Refer? 63
Guys and Dolls 70
Imagining Sophie 77
Marital Arts 84
Paternalism, Barbarism, Freedom, and the State 92
CHAPTER THREE Life Stories 102
Textual Symptoms 102
Novel Creations 108
Gilded Privations 114
Chalet Morality 121
Picture Perfect 127
Self-Perfecting Narratives 131
CHAPTER FOUR Loving the Body Politic 144
Wordplay 144
Personations 148
Maternal Learning 154
National Erotics 163
CHAPTER FIVE Republican Performances 169
What's Your Pleasure? 169
Inside the Cave 174
"That charming sentiment of shame..." 180
Masters of Philosophy 186
Speaking to the Eyes 191
Getting a Taste for One Another 197
CHAPTER SIX Making Rhetoric Matter 207
Agonies and Ecstasies 207
The Story and Two Deferrals 211
Dilemmas of Desire 217
Acting Free 225
Sovereign Representations 232
CONCLUSION Isn't It Romantic? 236
Works Cited 245
Index 251

What People are Saying About This

Kirstie M. McClure

A challenging contribution both to feminist theory and to political theory more generally. Wingrove's account of the effective and affective place of sexual difference in Rousseau's republican imaginary raises larger questions for democratic theory in particular, for it reveals the dynamics of desire and submission that underlie Rousseau's democratic emphases on the rule of law and government by consent. This offers a provocative interpretation of the democratic paradox--that citizens must be forced to be free--and it does so with striking originality.

Tracy Strong

This is an original, provocative, and extremely intelligent reading of Rousseau. I found myself continually learning from it.
— Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego

McClure

A challenging contribution both to feminist theory and to political theory more generally. Wingrove's account of the effective and affective place of sexual difference in Rousseau's republican imaginary raises larger questions for democratic theory in particular, for it reveals the dynamics of desire and submission that underlie Rousseau's democratic emphases on the rule of law and government by consent. This offers a provocative interpretation of the democratic paradox—that citizens must be forced to be free—and it does so with striking originality.
— Kirstie M. McClure, The Johns Hopkins University

From the Publisher

"This is an original, provocative, and extremely intelligent reading of Rousseau. I found myself continually learning from it."—Tracy Strong, University of California, San Diego

"A challenging contribution both to feminist theory and to political theory more generally. Wingrove's account of the effective and affective place of sexual difference in Rousseau's republican imaginary raises larger questions for democratic theory in particular, for it reveals the dynamics of desire and submission that underlie Rousseau's democratic emphases on the rule of law and government by consent. This offers a provocative interpretation of the democratic paradox—that citizens must be forced to be free—and it does so with striking originality."—Kirstie M. McClure, The Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Reviews

"An original and engaging analytical bridge between Rousseau's literary and political writings."—-Ethan Putterman, Political Studies

From the Publisher

An original and engaging analytical bridge between Rousseau's literary and political writings.

Political Studies - Ethan Putterman

An original and engaging analytical bridge between Rousseau's literary and political writings.
— Ethan Putterman

Political Studies