A superficial reading of Henry James : preoccupations with the material world / Thomas J. Otten.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Otten, Thomas J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

James, Henry.

James, Henry, 1843-1916.

Material culture in literature.

Realism in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 197 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, [2006]

Summary:

Do the surfaces matter? In this provocative book, A Superficial Reading of Henry James: Preoccupations with the Material World, Thomas J. Otten demonstrates that surfaces matter profoundly. Taking seriously the accessories of Henry James's fiction-the china and bric-a-brac, the antique cabinets and tapestries, the ribbons and hats-this book argues that James's famous ambiguity is a material state, an indeterminate zone where the difference between essence and ornament disappears. Ranging between fictions as well-known as The Portrait of a Lady (whose heroine is celebrated for her psychological complexity) and ones as understudied as "Rose-Agathe" (whose heroine is a hairdresser's manikin), Otten suggests that the distinction between what counts as thematic depth and what counts as physical surface is, for James, impossible to maintain. Achieving a superficial reading of Henry James means demonstrating the persistence of the material within the novelist's most conceptual formations of meaning-an argument with important consequences for literary theory, as Otten shows in his concluding chapters.

Eloquently written and guided by a perverse love for the superfluous detail, this book makes an important contribution to a fast-growing area of the humanities, one newly committed to the serious study of material culture, the concrete experiences of everyday life, and the history of the physical senses.

Contents:

Part I Turning to Matter in Henry James

Chapter 1 Revolving Heroines 3

Chapter 2 A Culture of Faulty Parallels 11

Part II Practical Aesthetics

Chapter 3 The Properties of Touch (The Spoils of Poynton) 39

Chapter 4 The Reproduction of Painting ("The Liar," "The Real Thing," The Tragic Muse) 60

Chapter 5 Bodies, Papers, and Persons (The Aspern Papers, "The Birthplace") 86

Chapter 6 Adulterous Matter (A London Life, The Sacred Fount, The Ambassadors) 110

Part III The Matter of Literary Criticism

Chapter 7 Literary Studies as Sublimated Physicality 135

Chapter 8 The Color of Air: New Materialism 154.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-191) and index.

ISBN:

0814210260

0814291031

OCLC:

63108314

Publisher Number:

9780814210260