Explores an alternative vision of citizenship in the writings of Rousseau and Stael. This critique transgresses the boundary between political philosophy and literature in turning explicitly to fictional texts as the site of alternative conceptions of self, citzenship and politics.

In Stael's novels, Delphine and Corinne, Marso locates a citizenship practice premised on the recognition of individuals in terms of their concrete histories and situations. Marso's scholarship makes us aware of how early in the history of modern political thought the potential of an unmanly vision of citizenship as a radical critique of politics was already being discussed and formulated.