In "(Un)Manly Citizens," political theorist Lori Jo Marso
explores an alternative vision of citizenship in the writings of
French Enlightenment figures Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Germaine de
Stael. This critique transgresses the boundary between political
philosophy and literature in turning explicitly to fictional texts
as the site of an alternative conception of the self, citizenship,
and democratic politics.
Marso departs from previous feminist scholarship on Rousseau by
reading "Emile" and "La Nouvelle Heloise" from the perspective of
his women characters. In this reading, Sophie and Julie emerge as
subversive of the narrow range of femininity usually understood as
advocated by Rousseau. Tracing the words, gestures, and even the
silence of the women characters in Rousseau's texts, Marso argues
that these women display an uncanny ability to deconstruct the
qualities and dictates of scholarship for which Rousseau is
infamous.
Germaine de Stael builds on the perspective of Rousseau's women
to uncover the radical potential of the feminine as a way to
reconceptualize citizenship. Based on her experience of the French
Revolution, Stael demonstrates the limits of establishing strict
identities as prerequisites for citizen participation. In Stael's
novels, "Delphine" and "Corinne," Marso locates a citizenship
practice premised on the recognition of individuals in terms of
their concrete histories and situations. Marso's scholarship makes
us aware of how early in the history of modern political thought
the potential of an unmanly vision of citizenship as a radical
critique of politics was already being discussed and
formulated.
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