Abstract: The construction of the a posteriori opposition between memoir and autobiography, which rests on the belief that narrative writings of the self can be divided into two distinct genres, often leads us to consider the Confessions as the inaugural work of a firmly modern genre. Yet it was not in the domain of genre that Rousseau affirmed the novelty and singularity of his project, and many aspects of his work in fact connect him with the diverse traditions of the memoir.
