Violenza e repressione autoritaria: l’impossibile emancipazione del corpo nella "Nouvelle Héloïse"

Abstract

The article investigates the representation of physical violence in Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse. Despite his explicit declaration of writing a novel in which “bad people” as well as “bad actions” would not enter fiction, the writer seems finally to reintegrate authoritarian figures and scenes of violence in the plot. Rousseau conceals the despotic and worrying aspects of the paternal character while trying to underline the harmonic sentiments between father and daughter in Letter LXIII, 1. Julie seems incapable of distancing herself from paternal authority and male control that lies on her body and at the same time the author fails in representing his character’s evolution without guiding her choices through external events.