Jean-Jacques Rousseau and British Romanticism: Gender and Selfhood, Politics and Nation

Bringing together leading scholars from the USA, Britain and Europe, this is the first substantial study of the seminal influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau - the great philosopher of the French Revolution - on British Romanticism. Reconsidering Rousseau's connection to canonical Romantic authors such as Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and British Romanticism also explores his impact on Romantic-period nature writing, women's poetry, political discourse, and the Anti-Jacobin novel and the transnational contexts of British literary culture. Convincingly demonstrating that the relationship between Rousseau's thought and British Romanticism goes beyond mere reception or influence to encompass complex forms of connection, transmission and appropriation, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and British Romanticism is a vital new contribution to scholarly understanding of British Romantic literature.