Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Confessions
French
Romanticism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the youngest son of a watchmaker, Isaac Rousseau. His mother died shortly after childbirth. It is with his father that he developed a passion for reading. When Rousseau was 10, his father was forced to place with the Lambercier family, to whom he was attached. During his teen years Rousseau attempted to complete an engraving apprenticeship, but ultimately left it. Later on, Rousseau became a record keep for Madame de Warens. This position gave him time to attempt writing and studying philosophy. One of his most successful early pieces was in 1750. A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences or Discours sur les sciences et les arts, was a treatise on how the modern condition had left behind the virtues and morality of earlier life. He would continue with this theme in such works as 1755’s Discourse upon the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (Discours sur L’origine et les fondements de l’ineqalite) and 1761’s A Treatise on the Social Contract: Or, the Principles of Politic Law (Du Contrat social: ou, principes du droit politique). His ideas often placed him on the opposite side of authority figures and religious institutes. Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is his attempt to catalog his development as an artist and person. The title is a reference to Saint Augustine’s Confessions. In his attempt to examine his life and what molded him, Rousseau shares many details of his development and personal preferences that were not commonly discussed in polite society, such as his sexuality and education.
Consider while reading:

1. How does Rousseau characterize childhood in relation to becoming a young adult?
2. What Romantic principles do you see at play in his writing?
3. Relationships are at the center of the narrator’s life. How do those relationships influence him? What larger points is Rousseau making?
4. Rousseau’s narrator enjoys a connection to nature. What does he find liberating about it and why?

Written by Laura Ng