XIVth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association

The Nature of the Reveries: A colloquium on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Rêveries du promeneur solitaire” (1782)

Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

June 9-12, 2005

SESSION 1 – Opening plenary address:

Dorothy Johnson , University of Iowa, “Rousseau and Landscape Painting in France ”

SESSION 2 – Visions of Nature

Chair: Ourida Mostefai , Boston College

John C. O’Neal , Hamilton College, “Nature as Refuge in Rousseau’s Rêveries du promeneur solitaire.”

Michel Termolle , Hautes Etudes P.H.O., Belgium, “Comprendre la nature, la nature pour comprendre.”

Pamela Gay-Whit e, Alabama State University, “Nature as Movement, Movement as Nature: la Cinquième Promenade .”

SESSION 3 – Philosophy and Religion in the Rêveries

Chair: John T. Scott , University of California, Davis

Philip Stewart , Duke University, “ ‘Ebranlé mais non convaincu’: Rousseau et les philosophes.”

David Lay Williams , University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, “Platonism in Rousseau’s Rêveries. ”

Laurence Mall, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, “ ‘Dieu est juste; il veut que je souffre; et il sait que je suis innocent’: le problème du mal dans les Rêveries de Rousseau.”

SESSION 4 – The Insights of Reverie in Nature

Chair: Natasha Lee , Princeton University

Jason Neidleman , University of La Verne, “Reverie’s Revelations: On the Form and Substance of Rousseauean Reverie.”

Kevin K. Inston , University of Manchester, United Kingdom, “Reverie as a Site of Resistance, Contestation, and Transformation.”

Byron Wells , Wake Forest University, “ ‘Un spectacle plein de vie’: Rousseau’s Enduring Nature and Body Ephemeral.”

SESSION 5 – The Rêveries as Truth or Fable

Chair: Catherine Gallouët, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Mira Morgenstern, City College of New York, “”Sidebar: Rousseau, the Rêveries, and the Paradox of Nature.”

Rémy Hildebrand, Comité Européen Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Switzerland, “Réflexions de Jean-Jacques à Bossey: source des Rêveries ?”

Ourida Mostefai , Boston College, “Vérité de la nature et nature de la vérité dans les Rêveries. ”

SESSION 6 – The Highs and Lows of Nature

Chair: Philip Stewart , Duke University

Jeremiah Alberg, University of West Georgia, “Unperturbed, Like God Himself.”

John T. Scott, University of California, Davis, “Rousseau’s Quixotic Quest for Nature in the Rêveries. ”

Matthew Simpson, Luther College, “Rousseau’s Tragic Nature.”

SESSION 7 – Scientific and Medical Views of Nature and the Self

Chair: Byron Wells, Wake Forest University

Alexandra Cook, University of Hong Kong, “Rousseau’s Herbarium: The Neglected Middle Term.”

Jean-François Perrin, Université de Grenoble 3, France, “Les opérations que font les physiciens: physique de l’homme naturel selon les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. ”

Russell Prather, Northern Michigan University, “ ‘ Garlands among the Ingredients of an Enema’: Multiple Selves in Rousseau’s Rêveries. ”

SESSION 8 – The Interior and Exterior Worlds of an Outsider

Chair: Mira Morgenstern, City College of New York

Sylvie Romanowski, Northwestern University, “Rousseau, un étranger pas comme les autres.”

Barbara Abrams, Suffolk University, “Rousseau and the Outsider Outside: Nature, Objectification, and Estrangement in the Rêveries. ”

Fiona Miller, Colgate University, “Rousseau’s Solitary Will: Force and Freedom in the Rêveries. ”

SESSION 9 – Natural Accidents (and Natural Evil?): The Second Walk

Chair: Sally Campbell, Concord University

Jean-Luc Guichet, Collège International de Philosophie, Paris, France, “Nature et origine: l’accident de Ménilmontant.”

Lorraine Clark, Trent University, Canada, “Nature in the Second Walk: Accident or ‘Secret Intentions.’”

SESSION 10 – Comparative Readings

Chair: Laurence Mall, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Zev Trachtenberg, University of Oklahoma, “Two Walkers, One Dream? A Comparison between Rousseau and Thoreau.”

James Swenson, Rutgers University, “Lyrical Prose.”

Carole Martin, Texas State University, San Marcos, “Question d’espace: de la fête des vendanges à la fête aux oublies du promeneur solitaire.”