Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Britain
An international conference
to be held at the University of Leeds, 28-29
June 2012, under the
auspices of the School of Modern Languages
and Cultures and the School of English
Plenary speakers: Dr Gregory Dart (University College London); Professor Robert
Mankin (Université Paris-Diderot); Professor John T. Scott (University
of California, Davis)
The aim of this international conference, held in celebration of the tercentenary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s
birth, is twofold: first, to reassess the
impact that Britain had on Rousseau’s life and writing; and secondly, to examine
the reception of Rousseau's
works in Britain from the eighteenth century to the present day.
It is well
known that Rousseau spent a number of months in England in 1766-67, a stay dominated by his stormy relationship
with David Hume. What is less well
known is the extent to which Rousseau, even before then,
was steeped in British
culture, including its literature, its philosophy and its politics. Exactly how Rousseau engaged with British culture and
the effect it had on his own
intellectual development
and output will be a key focus of this conference. The conference will also allow
scholars to explore systematically
the many ways in which Rousseau has been read, understood, appropriated and challenged by British writers, philosophers and political theorists from the eighteenth century to the present day.
Possible topics for conference papers include, but are not limited to:
·
Rousseau in Britain: travel
and translation
·
Rousseau and the British press
·
Rousseau and the British Enlightenment
·
Rousseau and the Romantics
·
Rousseau and the Victorians
·
Rousseau: From Modernism to
Postmodernism
·
Rousseau and British feminism
·
Rousseau and British nature-writing
·
Rousseau and the novel in Britain
·
Rousseau and British educational theory
·
Rousseau and British political theory
Proposals for
20-minute papers in English should
include a title and an
abstract of 300-500 words and should
be sent by 30 September
2011 to the conference organisers,
Professor Russell Goulbourne
(r.j.goulbourne@leeds.ac.uk) and Dr David Higgins (d.higgins@leeds.ac.uk).
Professor Russell Goulbourne,
Head of the Department of French
School of Modern Languages
and Cultures | University of Leeds | Leeds LS2 9JT |
UK
Tel: +44
(0)113 343 3483 | Fax: +44 (0)113 343 3477
Facebook
page: www.facebook.com/pages/French-at-Leeds/145471972165384
Website: www.leeds.ac.uk/french/staff/russell_goulbourne.htm
Secretary of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French: www.auphf.ac.uk