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.”
