Rousseau in Shelley's Eyes and The role of emotion in environmental narratives: an analysis of Canada’s leading environmental organizations

Absract 1: Percy Shelley was a second generation Romantic poet who sought to understand the impact of the French Revolution, and the Enlightenment more broadly, on Western society. This essay focuses on the impact of the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Shelley’s world view and poetry, specifically through an analysis of Shelley’s poem, “The Triumph of Life”. Rousseau’s intellectual legacy leading into the French Revolution, his influence on Jacobin political leaders and how he was perceived by English Romantics following the Revolution are explored and considered in the context of his influence on Shelley. Abstract 2:The role of emotion in the environmental narratives employed by Canada’s leading environmental advocacy organizations is explored. Analysis is framed in the context of the dominant Western worldview, which is characterized by the opposition between rationality and emotion. The essay seeks to answer whether the environmental movement in Canada is undermined by its use of emotion in environmental narratives.