Rousseau in Gadda: a negative paradigm, with one exception

Abstract

The article explores the role played by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Carlo Emilio Gadda’s thinking, as a negative paradigm with which to engage intensely – especially in Meditazione milanese – in order to develop a highly personal and anti-systemic gnoseological reflection. Gadda several times refers to Emile and the Confessions to argue ironically with the French philosopher both in the technical-scientific field, in his ‘engineering’ writings, and in the humanities. However, a different position on Rousseau can be found in two essays collected in the book I viaggi la morte (1958), in which the Engineer presents him as a precursor to Freud and Proust in the psychoanalytic investigation of the subject.