The trial of curiosity : Henry James, William James, and the challenge of modernity / Ross Posnock.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Posnock, Ross.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

James, Henry, 1843-1916--Criticism and interpretation.

James, Henry.

James, William, 1842-1910--Influence.

James, William.

James, William, 1842-1910.

James, Henry, 1843-1916.

Modernism (Literature)--United States.

Modernism (Literature).

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Physical Description:

xiv, 358 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1991.

Summary:

In this important revisionist study, Posnock integrates literary and psychological criticism with social and cultural theory to make a major advance in our understanding of the life and thought of two great American figures, Henry and William James. Challenging canonical images of both brothers, Posnock is the first to place them in a rich web of cultural and intellectual affiliations comprised of a host of American and European theorists of modernity. A startlingly new Henry James emerges from a cross-disciplinary dialogue, which features Veblen, Santayana, Bourne, and Dewey, as well as Weber, Simmel, Benjamin, and Adorno. While contributing to current debates about the responsibility of the intellectual, Posnock's work will fascinate the general reader as well as literary and cultural critics and historians.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Master and Worm; Anarchist and Idiot 3

Part I The Trial of Curiosity

2. Henry and William James and the Trial of Curiosity 27

3. "On a Certain Blindness": Henry James and the Politics of Cultural Response 54

4. "The Religion of Doing": Breaking the Aura of Henry James 80

5. Abolishing the Logic of Identity: Contexts and Consequences 105

Part II The Challenge of Modernity

6. "Adventures of the Critical Spirit": Rereading The American Scene 141

7. "At the Active Pitch": Mimetic Selfhood in James's Autobiography 167

8. Lifting the Yoke of the Genteel: Henry James, George Santayana, and Howard Sturgis 193

9. Going to Smash: Violence in The Ambassadors 221

10. "The Amazing Hotel-World": The American Scene of 1904 250

Coda: The Politics of Nonidentity 285.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0195066065

OCLC:

22888555