Poetics of HistoryRousseaus opposition to the theater is well known: Far from purging the passions, it serves only to exacerbate them, and to render them hypocritical. But is it possible that Rousseaus texts reveal a different conception of theatrical imitation, a more originary form of mimesis? Over and against Heideggers dismissal of Rousseau in the 1930s, and in the wake of classic readings by Jacques Derrida and Jean Starobinski, Lacoue Labarthe asserts the deeply