
Den sentimentala romanen och kampen om medborgarskap: Rousseaus Julie och Staëls Delphine
Author(s) -
Kristina Fjelkestam
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
sjuttonhundratal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2001-9866
pISSN - 1652-4772
DOI - 10.7557/4.2758
Subject(s) - art , citizenship , virtue , sacrifice , philosophy , aesthetics , sociology , humanities , theology , law , political science , politics
The sentimental novel and the struggle for citizenship: Rousseau’s Julie and Staël’s Delphine The tragic fates of a great number of women in sentimental novels of the eighteenth century can be viewed against the background of classic liberal theory. They provide examples of how individual freedom and restraint in the name of common good can be reconciled. Faced with the impossible choice between a life guided by the principle of love and that of virtue, women often choose self-sacrifice as a means of preserving a sense of individuality in the face of the demands of public universality. The epistolary novels, Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) of Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Delphine (1802) of Germaine de Staël, present two rather different treatments of this problem. Rousseau’s Julie is a woman whose unquenchable desire transforms her into a prototype of female unreliability not worthy of societal recognition. Staël’s Delphine, in turn, unmasks a ruthless and unprincipled society which prohibits her from becoming its full-fledged member.