Coda

Abstract

The Coda moves the argument from ‘Fractured Materiality’ to ‘Broken Life’. It takes the figure of Rousseau as he appears in ‘The Triumph of Life’ and suggests that Shelley’s brilliant gathering of images (chestnut tree, root, and highway) are derived ultimately from Émile (1762) and Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’ inégalité parmi les hommes (1755). I end by arguing that Rousseau’s conception of ‘frêle bonheur’ illuminates Shelley’s persistent return to weakness as a kind of strength, and what it means to accept interruption as the very condition of a continuing life.