Sex and autobiography in Rousseau: a comparative piece for the study of the human heart

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the role of the narrative of sexual experience in the Confessions and to determine to what extent this narrative contributes to Rousseau’s reflections on sex. We start from the following premise: autobiography is not merely an accessory to Rousseau's philosophical theory, but an integral part of his reflection on the human being. Our analyses lead us to the following conclusions: (i) the narrative of sexual experience plays a rhetorical role in the autobiographical discourse; (ii) Rousseau’s example reveals the influence of imagination on sexual experience and, as a faculty born of social life, presents the various forms of modification, corruption, and prohibition that affect sex; (iii) insofar as Rousseau claims his authenticity as an individual, the rhetoric of the narrative of sexual experience in the autobiography challanges the theory of sexual difference and expands Rousseau’s reflections on the subject.