Jean Starobinski's Medical and Literary Gaze on Melancholy

A new volume, 'L'Encre de la mélancolie,' gathers fifty years of Jean Starobinski's writings on melancholy, a theme he first explored in his 1960 medical thesis. Starobinski, who earned doctorates in both letters (1957) and medicine (1960), reads literature as a physician auscultates a patient, blending science and patience. The book traces melancholy from Homer's Iliad to Rousseau and Diderot, revealing Starobinski's method of close reading that attends to rhetoric, rhythm, and hidden meanings. Concurrently, 'Accuser et séduire' examines Rousseau's use of prosopopoeia and his fraught relationships with Voltaire and Diderot. A facsimile edition of Rousseau's 'La Botanique' (1822) is also published, highlighting his retreat into botany as a refuge from persecution. Starobinski's approach unifies these works, showing how melancholy inflects the human condition across time.