Great Works of Literature II

Rousseau’s “Confessions” is an avant-garde approach to writing an autobiography. His opening line in which he promises to ‘tell the truth and nothing but the truth’ is almost as avant-garde. His confessions which we have read are not as important as is the way and medium in which he writes them. His confessions, most notably the one on his troubles in writing (pg,671), are like a battlescene. The paragraph talks about how his writing doesn’t come easily and how he thinks he’s not even a good writer; the irony of which lies in the fact that the entire paragraph was written in clear vivid, English. Rousseau has an air of naiveness in him, especially in his younger years when he was less educated, are somewhat like the naivety of Candide. Both were sort of alienated from the world, Candide in his lack of knowledge, and Rousseau’s problem of his relation to society [He peed in his neighbors cooking pot. thats classic. honey…my food tastes like pee]. “Confessions” shows the narcissistic side of the romantic period of his time, Romanticism. His desire to be beaten by his nanny is a perverse, his relationship with an older women [Mademoiselle de Vulson] to whom he claims experienced the “first fruits of his youthful love”. The dangers of this were an immersion into caring only about yourself which led to an alienation from reality and others. Rousseau’s “Confessions” isn’t so much an avant-garde approach to an autobiography as it is a gateway into his mind.