Jean Starobinski

Jean Starobinski (November 17, 1920 - March 4, 2019) was born in Geneva in 1920. He pursued medical studies and specialized in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He practiced medicine and later taught French literature in the United States before returning to Europe as a professor of the History of Ideas at the University of Geneva. Beyond his groundbreaking studies on Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("Transparency and Obstacle," 1957) and Montaigne ("Montaigne in Motion," 1982), he also engaged with Montesquieu, Diderot, Andre Chenier, and Baudelaire, and published the "Anagrams" of Ferdinand de Saussure. His multifaceted work established him as one of the most esteemed scholars of the Enlightenment and a prominent representative of Comparative Literature in Europe.