This is a recording of a paper I gave at the 2021 Australian Society of French Studies Conference.
Paper title: Siting Rousseau’s state of Nature
Abstract: Rousseau’s account of the social contract relies, both logically and rhetorically, on his reconstruction of the so-called “state of nature”, a supposed pre-contractual condition of human life. There is much debate about whether or not Rousseau intends his state of nature to describe a historically and geographically “real” situation, but this paper argues that focusing on the question of the state of nature’s historicity misses both its power and its danger. The paper argues that the more important question is how the state of nature, as a non-site, serves to construct a social imaginary in which certain political relations become possible and desirable. Approaching the Rousseauian state of nature as a site, a topos, the paper reflects on the power of non-sites to shape social and political spaces today, drawing on contemporary reaffirmations and rejections of the state of nature idea. The state of nature is a site that continues to influence debates about ecology and the colonial legacy. The argument has implications for other contemporary non-sites such as the perfectly free market, the society of radical equality and the dystopia of looming Fascism.
