Man or Citizen: Anger, Forgiveness, and Authenticity in Rousseau

Pagani, Karen

ISBN 10: 0271065907 / ISBN 13: 9780271065908

Published by Penn State University Press, 2015

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Man or Citizen: Anger, Forgiveness, and Authenticity in Rousseau
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271065907
• ISBN 13: 9780271065908
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

The French studies scholar Patrick Coleman made the important observation that over the course of the eighteenth century, the social meanings of anger became increasingly democratized. The work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is an outstanding example of this change. In Man or Citizen, Karen Pagani expands, in original and fascinating ways, the study of anger in Rousseau&;s autobiographical, literary, and philosophical works. Pagani is especially interested in how and to what degree anger&;and various reconciliatory responses to anger, such as forgiveness&;functions as a defining aspect of one&;s identity, both as a private individual and as a public citizen. Rousseau himself was, as Pagani puts it, &;unabashed&; in his own anger and indignation&;toward society on one hand (corrupter of our naturally good and authentic selves) and, on the other, toward certain individuals who had somehow wronged him (his famous philosophical disputes with Voltaire and Diderot, for example). In Rousseau&;s work, Pagani finds that the extent to which an individual processes, expresses, and eventually resolves or satisfies anger is very much of moral and political concern. She argues that for Rousseau, anger is not only inevitable but also indispensable, and that the incapacity to experience it renders one amoral, while the ability to experience it is a key element of good citizenship.

About the Author

Karen Pagani is Assistant Professor of French and Italian at the University of Texas at Austin.