Plato said that humans reproduce not only to ensure the survival of the race, but also to overcome our own deaths — children preserve our memory and continue a bloodline. In his Confessions, and other works, Rousseau writes explicitly for a putative reader of the future, an inhabitant of a more enlightened posterity. It is in reaction both to these claims and to Rousseau’s notorious abandonment of his children, that — I think — Marmontel dedicates and shapes his own memoirs. This article looks at the first-person writing of Marmontel and other authors, examining a new trend for envisaging posterity incarnated more humbly in their children and thereby redeeming or excusing the vanity of which first-person writers had previously been accused.

中文翻译：

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后代和后代：回忆录和自传在18世纪后期

柏拉图说，人类的繁殖不仅是为了确保种族的生存，而且是为了克服我们自己的死亡-孩子们保留了我们的记忆并延续着血统。卢梭在自白和其他作品中明确地为未来的假定读者写作，他是开明后代的居民。正是出于对这些主张以及卢梭臭名昭著的弃儿的回应，我认为Marmontel致力于并塑造自己的回忆录。本文着眼于Marmontel和其他作者的第一人称写作，研究了一种新的趋势，即设想在他们的孩子中更加谦卑地实现后代，从而赎回或原谅先前被指控的第一人称作家的虚荣心。