Abstract
This essay analyses the rhetorical and conceptual foundation of Emile, Rousseau's first-person treatise-novel of education. At the beginning of the book, after having portrayed social men as difformed and monstruous, Rousseau (the « I » author) creates a prodigy : the ideal educator who is... himself (the « I » educator). I examine the implications of this creation for the reader-pedagogue, and I conclude that, far from alleviating the aporia of the original natural educator, Rousseau's stratagem only serve to lock the text into a « prodigious » and ultimately closed fiction.
| Original language | French |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 363-380 |
| Journal | Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale |
| Issue number | 3 |
| State | Published - 2000 |