Editing, Translating, Annotating Rousseau / Rousseau
as Editor, Translator, Annotator
Rutgers
University
New
Brunswick, NJ (USA)
June 4-6,
2025
Colloquium Director: James Swenson
http://rousseauassociation.com/upcoming-ra-colloquium/
Call for
Papers
The current moment in Rousseau studies is characterized by
two significant and symmetrical developments, among many others. Since the turn
of the century, with the tercentennial of 2012 as a focal point, we have seen a
renewal of editorial projects (notably but not exclusively the competing Œuvres
complètes from Slatkine and Classiques Garnier). This work has been facilitated
by the reappearance or reexamination of manuscript and other documentary
sources and given rise to a multiplicity of editorial approaches. While for the
moment we have traditional print editions (that may be available for
downloading and for electronic search functions), the advent of truly digital
editions is just over the horizon (both Julie and Emile call for such an
approach). New translations continue to appear in multiple languages, and they
too must confront editorial choices about copytext and annotation.
At the same time, following a period where the notion of
Rousseau as “author” was central to a variety of scholarly projects, we have
seen new attention to aspects of Rousseau’s work were he plays a different
role: his work for Louise and Claude Dupin on Montesquieu and on Des femmes,
his editorship of the Saint-Pierre papers, his translations from Latin and from
Italian, his herbaria, and his citation practices with their complex material
support, not to speak of his efforts to edit his own collected works. Our
knowledge of these projects has been greatly facilitated by work with
manuscripts for new editions, but they may also have something to teach us
about how to conceive of our work today.
We invite proposals for 25-minute papers in either French
or English on the history of editions, translations, and annotations of
Rousseau; on editorial and translation projects, whether real, possible, or
ideal (to take up the terms of our last meeting); on global or local problems
of edition, translation, or annotation (of musical as well as textual and
published as well as unfinished works); on Rousseau’s work as an editor,
annotator, translator, or music copyist, whether considered in themselves or in
the course of his career. We hope to attract a wide variety of disciplinary
approaches and studies of different aspects of Rousseau’s work, in the
tradition of the Association.
Please send proposals including title, abstract (max. 300
words), and short biography (max. 150 words), in a single document titled
name_RA2025_proposal.pdf, to
Rousseau.2025@rutgers.edu by the deadline of December 20,
2024.
The colloquium will be held at Rutgers University in New
Brunswick, NJ, June 4-6, 2025. New
Brunswick is located between New York (37 miles/50 km) and Philadelphia (65
miles/100 km), with easy access by Amtrak and New Jersey transit.
THE ROUSSEAU ASSOCIATION, Since 1979
Officers:
President: Masano Yamashita; Vice-President: Flora Champy;
SecretaryTreasurer: Jason Neidleman; Webmaster: Adam Schoene; Colloquium
Director: James Swenson
Board
Members: Johanna Lenne-Cornuez; Nathan Martin; Ourida Mostefai;
Wilson Alves de Paiva; John T. Scott; Brigitte Weltman-Aron
