Breaking Feminist Waves Series Editors: LINDA MARTÍN ALCOFF , Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center GILLIAN HOWIE , University of Liverpool For the last twenty years, feminist theory has been presented as a series of ascend- ing waves. This picture has had the effect of deemphasizing the diversity of past scholarship as well as constraining the way we understand and frame new work. The aim of this series is to attract original scholars who will offer unique inter- pretations of past scholarship and unearth neglected contributions to feminist theory. By breaking free from the constraints of the image of waves, this series will be able to provide a wider forum for dialogue and engage historical and inter- disciplinary work to open up feminist theory to new audiences and markets. LINDA MARTÍN ALCOFF is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. Her books include V isible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self ; T he Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy (coedited with Eva Kittay); Identity Politics Reconsidered (coedited with Moya, Mohanty, and Hames-Garcia); and Singing in the Fire: Tales of Women in Philosophy . GILLIAN HOWIE is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool. Her previous work includes Deleuze and Spinoza: Aura of Expressionism ; T ouching Transcendence: Women and the Divine (coedited with Jan Jobling); Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration (coedited with Stacy Gillis and Rebecca Munford); Menstruation (coedited with Andrew Shail); and Gender, Teaching and Research in Higher Education (coedited with Ashley Tauchert). Titles to date: Unassimilable Feminisms: Reappraising Feminist, Womanist, and Mestiza Identity Politics by Laura Gillman Further Adventures of The Dialectic of Sex: Critical Essays on Shulamith Firestone edited by Mandy Merck and Stella Sandford Hegel’s Philosophy and Feminist Thought: Beyond Antigone? edited by Kimberly Hutchings and Tuija Pulkkinen Femme nism and the Mexican Woman Intellectual from Sor Juana to Poniatowska: Boob Lit by Emily Hind Between Feminism and Materialism: A Question of Method by Gillian Howie Resonances of Slavery in Race/Gender Relations: Shadow at the Heart of American Politics by Jane Flax The Many Dimensions of Chinese Feminism by Ya-chen Chen Rousseau in Drag: Deconstructing Gender by Rosanne Terese Kennedy Rousseau in Drag Deconstructing Gender Rosanne Terese Kennedy ROUSSEAU IN DRAG Copyright © Rosanne Terese Kennedy, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-34008-4 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-34268-6 ISBN 978-1-137-01062-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137010629 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Kennedy, Rosanne Terese. Rousseau in drag : deconstructing gender / Rosanne Terese Kennedy. p. cm.—(Breaking feminist waves) Includes bibliographical references (p. ). 1. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712–1778. 2. Sex differences. I. Title. B2137.K46 2011 848(cid:2).509—dc23 2011025437 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: January 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Jonathan, Eleanor, and Olivia Contents Series Foreword i x Acknowledgments xi Note on Rousseau Texts x iii Introduction 1 Rousseau in Drag 1 Feminist Readings of Rousseau 6 L’Amour à Trois 1 3 Structure of the Text 1 4 1 Sexual/Political Inequality 19 The Nothingness of Nature 1 9 Society and Sexual Difference 23 Narcissism and the Waning of Pity 26 Instituting the Exchange of Women: The Levite of Ephraïm 3 2 The Prostitute 3 9 The Dedication 4 3 2 The Arts: From the Letter to d’Alembert to T he Reveries of the Solitary Walker 55 Rousseau in Love 6 0 Tragedy and Comedy 63 Paris and the Theater of “Love” 64 Geneva 70 Reveries of the Solitary Walker 73 Writing New Fictions: Julie , or the Modern Romance Novel 7 8 3 Postoedipal Desire: Reading the Ménage à Trois 8 3 Emile 8 5 Emile et Sophie, ou Les Solitaires 8 9 Julie, or the New Héloïse 9 3 viii CONTENTS Sophie d’Houdetot 1 03 Mme de Warens 1 05 4 Autobiography: Writing the Self, Writing Gender 1 09 Reading Gender 1 13 Masochism 116 Heroic (“Masculine”) Rebellions 118 Performing the “Feminine” 1 24 Exhibitionism: Nonphallic Desire 1 25 Homosexual Love 1 28 Refusing the Father (and the Brothers) 134 Conclusion 1 37 Notes 145 Bibliography 1 73 Index 1 81 Series Foreword Breaking Feminist Waves is a series designed to rethink the con- ventional models of what feminism is today, its past and future tra- jectories. For more than a quarter of a century, feminist theory has been presented as a series of ascending waves, and this has come to represent generational divides and differences of political ori- entation as well as different formulations of goals. The imagery of waves, while connoting continuous movement, implies a singular trajectory with an inevitably progressive teleology. As such, it con- strains the way we understand what feminism has been and where feminist thought has appeared, while simplifying the rich and nuanced political and philosophical diversity that has been charac- teristic of feminism throughout. Most disturbingly, it restricts the way we understand and frame new work. This series provides a forum to reassess established constructions of feminism and of feminist theory. It provides a starting point to redefine feminism as a configuration of intersecting movements and concerns, with political commitment but, perhaps, without a singular centre or primary track. The generational divisions among women do not actually correlate to common interpretive frameworks shaped by shared historical circumstances, but rather to a diverse set of arguments, problems, and interests affected by differing historical contexts and locations. Often excluded from cultural access to dominant modes of communication and dis- semination, feminisms have never been uniform nor yet in a com- prehensive conversation. The generational division, then, cannot represent the dominant divide within feminism, nor a division between essentially coherent moments; there are always multiple conflicts and contradictions, as well as differences about the goals, strategies, founding concepts, and starting premises. Nonetheless, the problems facing women, feminists, and feminisms are as acute and pressing today as ever. Featuring a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, Breaking Feminist Waves provides a forum x SERIES FOREWORD for comparative, historical, and interdisciplinary work, with special attention to the problems of cultural differences, language and representation, embodiment, rights, violence, sexual economies, and political action. By rethinking feminisms’ history as well as their present, and by unearthing neglected contributions to femi- nist theory, this series intends to unlock conversations between feminists and feminisms and to open up feminist theory and prac- tice to new audiences. —L inda Martín Alcoff and Gillian Howie