FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES: FROM THE BIBLE TO ROUSSEAU

Barbara Abrams, PhD., Suffolk University, Mira Morgenstern, PhD, The City College of New York, and Karen Sullivan, PhD, Queens College/CUNY discuss their latest book, Reframing Rousseau’s Lévite d’Ephraïm: The Hebrew Bible, hospitality, and modern identity. The afternoon’s moderator is Jennifer Vanderheyden, PhD., Marquette University.

What can Enlightenment philosophes —  especially Rousseau, arguably the most difficult of them all —  have to tell us about modern life that we don’t already know?

Join a team of scholars from different academic areas, each of whom offers a unique vantage point in understanding Rousseau’s texts. This constellation of approaches —  grounded in an appreciation of the shared background of feminist critique promoted by the contributors to this volume —  provides the density that allows Rousseau’s nuanced writings to be read in their full complexity.

This multi graph book focuses on a relatively unfamiliar work of Rousseau’s, Le Lévite d’Ephraïm, a prose-poem in which Rousseau elaborates on a little-known Hebrew biblical text to interrogate many of the accepted, conventional views on issues ranging from the role of sacred texts; to Rousseau’s self-construction through the representation of guilt and remorse; to the role of hospitality in structuring both individual self-representation and social cohesion; to the place of violence in establishing national and communal self-identity.  In each of these spheres, Rousseau reveals a particularly modern perspective in trying to honor both personal and social needs, and in privileging both the individual viewpoint and the political structure.

This virtual program is produced by GBH Forum Network.