Henry James : the contingencies of style
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Henry James : the contingencies of style
Macmillan, 1993
Available at 23 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study shows that the difficulties of James' style reveal it as the central strategy of his art, giving language itself an intensely thematic role in his novels. Long before poststructuralism had focused on the instability and play inherent in words, James had joined language at its own game, inventing in his style a system of relations to orchestrate and contain its contingencies. His novels mime his own struggle with the signifiers, his characters are his doubles in their attempt to negotiate plots which turn on decisions about the deployment and reference of words. In making his language the point and moral of everything, James must also face the failure of this strategy. His novels are profoundly decentered by this attempt at containment, this doomed quest for truth and inclusiveness. Using contemporary theory, this analysis of James' style covers much that has remained unexplored in the patterns, syntax and artistic purposes of his literary language. Included is a list of abbreviations and a list of the works cited by the author.
Table of Contents
- Radical syntax
- the Jamesian field
- the verbal "Portrait"
- decoding the code - "What Maisie Knew" and "The Awkward Age"
- adventures of the signifier - "The Ambassadors"
- to "glory in a gap" - "The Wings of the Dove"
- text and countertext - "The Golden Bowl"
- the contingencies of style.
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