Romanticism, Rousseau, Switzerland ― New Prospects

This collection brings together current research on topics that – separately and together – are perennially important to Romantic studies: the life and work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the landscape and history of his native Switzerland. Some of the essays re-orient Rousseau back to his Swiss context, while others address a Rousseauean Switzerland, a landscape indelibly coloured for writers and travellers by his presence. Among the authors discussed are Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Byron, Mary Shelley, James Boswell, Frances Brooke, Walter Scott, Felicia Hemans, and the Swiss cartoonist Rodolphe Topffer. Topics include Rousseau's relevance to Romantic-era discoveries and debates on education, botany, automata, and suicide. Delving into Romanticism's engagement with Switzerland, these essays examine the rise of alpine and literary tourism, technologies of the picturesque, and representations and reconstructions of Swiss landscape in verbal and visual media.

Angela Esterhammer is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Diane Piccitto is Associate Lecturer in English at Plymouth University, UK.

Patrick Vincent is Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.

In 2012, they organized the twentieth annual North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference in Neuchatel, Switzerland.