Screwball Tragedy: Contract and Consent in Rousseau’s Les Solitaires
Amy Shuffelton (Loyola University Chicago)

5.30 pm – 7.00pm (BST)

The paper is attached here.
For further inquiries: alison.brady.14@ucl.ac.uk 
 
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Stanley Cavell interprets the screwball comedies that he calls “remarriage” tales as a supplement to Rawlsian contract theory.  Yet Cavell’s take on moral perfectionism draws on no major works of philosophy or film authored by women.  Cavell acknowledges the exclusion of women but quickly dismisses the problem, suggesting that a serious consideration would have to take up the history of women’s education starting with Rousseau.  This work-in-progress paper engages Cavell by turning to Rousseau’s little-read, unfinished epistolary sequel to Emile, Emile et Sophie: ou, les solitaires. The sequel indicates ongoing problems with including women’s lives in moral and political philosophy.
 
Amy Shuffelton is a Professor at Loyola University Chicago. Her recent scholarship has been about the politics of parenting in both canonical texts and contemporary policies, looking historically at portrayals of child-rearing in Enlightenment writing and at contemporary family/school issues.  She is Editor-in-Chief of Studies in Philosophy and Education, Executive Director of the Philosophy of Education Society, and President of the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society.  
 
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