The peritextual framework of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's first discourse in eighteenth-century English translations (1751-1779)

The publication of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s prize-winning Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts, originally printed by Noël-Jacques Pissot in Paris in 1751, led to the emergence of a polemical print culture in France which propelled the author to great literary fame. The essay did not only provoke an incessant stream of critical rejoinders, but was also made available at the time in Britain in the form of a partial translation printed in the January 1751 issue of the British Magazine, and five different full-length translations issued either as single volumes or integrated into a set of collected works. The full-length English translations were authored by William Bowyer (1699-1777), Richard Wynne (1719-1799), and William Kenrick (1729/30-1779), whose translations were printed in 1751, 1752 and 1767 respectively. Two translations were authored anonymously and were issued in 1760 and 1779. Given the lack of attention devoted to the translations’ paratextual framework in previous reception narratives, this article aims to examine the translations’ title pages and prefaces on the basis of Genette’s theory of paratextuality, in order to demonstrate that paratexts, in addition to the material aspects of the printed work, contribute to the mediation of Rousseau’s contemporaneous reputation in Britain