ENN New Voices: Germaine de Staël's life and philosophy: Interview with Kristin Gjesdal

In this episode, Jacinta Shrimpton speaks with Kristin Gjesdal, Professor of Philosophy at Temple University, about 19th century philosopher Germaine de Staël. We discuss Staël’s account of the passions, with a focused look at fanaticism and happiness, followed by a discussion of her abolitionism, and whether Staël could be classified as the first existentialist. The episode concludes with Gjesdal’s reflections on how to include Staël in history of philosophy courses, together with her advice to scholars (particularly early career scholars) who are interested in beginning to research understudied figures.

Bibliography
​
Listed chronologically, by publishing date
 
1788 - Letters on the works and character of J.J. Rousseau
1795 – Essay on Fictions
           Three abolitionist novellas: 1) Mirza or letter from a traveller (written 9 years earlier)      
                                                           2) Adelaide and Theodore
                                                           3) The story of Pauline
1796 - Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations
1800 – ‘On Women Writers’, a chapter from The Influence of Literature on Society
1807 – Corinne or Italy
1813 – Reflections on Suicide
 
Other Works Mentioned
 
Beauvoir, Simone de, Constance. Borde, and Sheila. Malovany-Chevallier. The Second Sex. 1st American ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.
 
Gjesdal, Kristin. “Germaine de Staël on Passions, Politics, and Fanaticism.” In Fanaticism and the History of Philosophy, 1st ed., 143–60. Routledge, 2024. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032128207-13.
 
Ibsen, Henrik, and E. (Emanuel) Haldeman-Julius. A Doll’s House. 1st ed. Waiheke Island: The Floating Press, 1923.
 
Jameson-Cemper, K, George Solovieff, and Anne Louise Germaine de Stael. “Letter to Jefferson.” Selected Correspondence. 368. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4283-0.
 
Forthcoming
 
Gjesdal, Kristin. Germaine de Staël (under contract with CUP)
 
Gjesdal, Kristin. How to be a Self. Four Lessons from Germaine de Staël (under contract with OUP)
 
Further Reading
 
Gjesdal, Kristin. “When Henrik Ibsen put ‘philosophers in skirts’ into his plays, he demonstrated a different way of thinking about the world.” Psyche. Published 9 November 2022. https://psyche.co/ideas/why-did-ibsen-put-philosophers-in-skirts-up-on-the-stage
 
Nassar, Dalia, and Kristin Gjesdal, eds. Women Philosophers in the Long Nineteenth Century : The German Tradition. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press, 2021.
 
 
To listen to this episode, please visit our podcast page.