An Ecocritical Re-reading of Rousseau’s <i>Julie or the New Heloise</i>

Abstract Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Julie or the New Heloise extends far beyond picturesque scenery. It anticipates central questions of contemporary ecocriticism. Through a close reading of gardens, mountain landscapes, and lake shores, this study shows that Rousseau treats nature as an active agent that shapes human identity and moral development. The novel’s first half features scenes of intimate reverie that demonstrate what Zev Trachtenberg calls the “environmentalism of the man,” as nature elicits affect, stimulates self-understanding, and contributes to lovers’ psychological development through influence. The second half, focusing on the Clarens estate and the Elysium Garden, illustrates the “environmentalism of the citizen” (Trachtenberg “Rousseau and Environmentalism”). Rousseau presents an ecological micro-republic where sustainable agriculture, closed-loop exchanges, vegetarian consumption, and cooperative labor cultivate civic virtue and social justice. Rousseau dramatizes a reciprocally beneficial human-nature relationship that echoes debates about environmental justice in the Anthropocene. By situating Julie in early modern ecological thought, the study positions Rousseau as a pioneering voice in the environmental humanities and a precursor to ecocriticism’s emphasis on non-human agency.