The New Heloise in the Correspondence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

By deciphering the secrets of a work or by following the metamorphoses of a profuse theme, we penetrate the most intimate aspects of a creation. We follow its inner mechanisms and try to shed light on its aspects and disguises, its aims and instincts, in order to present the sketch of its movements. This is why, despite the multiplicity of studies devoted to the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, penetrating his "writing workshop" is considered today to be a very remarkable challenge. And although the study of correspondence is far from being an entirely new approach, having long preoccupied not only literary critics but also collectors, archivists, biographers and philologists, the fact that it is analysed genetically gives it a remarkable new importance. Can the 'creative process' really be revealed through a writer's correspondence? Is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's correspondence a mere "writer's autobiography" or another "escort subject" of his works, a "disturbing" palimpsest where "reality" is aborted.