The good prince or the good mother: Reassessing the question of gender in Rousseau’s political theory

Abstract

The article argues that Rousseau´s fairy tale "La Reine Fantasque" (1754-1756) must be read in direct connection with his theory of government, thus clarifying the actual meaning of the gender metamorphoses he displays in this text. By engaging with scholarship dedicated both to Rousseau´s work and to gender, economy, and family transformations between the 17th and the 18th century, the essay argues that this tale should be understood as a fictional laboratory for the construction of a new kind of governmental agent: a feminised and maternalised subject whose power is passive and merely administrative, thus allowing a peculiar coalition between the economico-political archives of the Reason of State, the theory of sovereign power, and a new paradigm of economic governmentality. The author tries therefore to gain new insights into the construction of motherhood in 18th century culture.