Henry James and the art of impressions / John Scholar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scholar, John, 1980- author.

Series:

Oxford English monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

James, Henry.

James, Henry, 1843-1916.

Impressionism in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

viii, 301 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020.

Summary:

Henry James criticized the impressionism which was revolutionizing French painting and French fiction, and satirized the British aesthetic movement, which championed impressionist criticism. Yet time and again he used the word 'impression' to represent the most intense moments of consciousness of his characters, as well as the work of the literary artist. Henry James and the Art of Impressions argues that the literary art of the impression, as James practised it, places his work within the wider cultural history of impressionism, and means that his work stands outside that history and challenges its very terms. 0'Henry James and the Art of Impressions' offers an unprecedentedly detailed cultural and intellectual history of the impression. It draws on philosophy, psychology, literature, critical theory, and the visual arts to study James's early art criticism, literary criticism, travel writing, prefaces, and the three great novels of his major phase,The Ambassadors,The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. It argues that coherent philosophical meanings of the Jamesian impression emerge when they are comprehended as a family of related ideas about perception, imagination, and aesthetics - bound together by James's attempt to reconcile the novel's value as a mimetic form with its value as a transformative creative activity. 0'Henry James and the Art of Impressions' traces the development of the impression across a range of disciplines to show the cultural and intellectual debts James's use of the word owes them. It offers a more philosophical account of James to complement the more historicist work of recent decades.

Contents:

Part I James's Theories of the Impression: Texts and Contexts

1 James's Criticism of Existing Theories of the Impression, 1872-88 p. 25

1.1 Painterly Impressionism p. 26

1.2 James's Art Criticism and Travel Writing p. 36

1.3 Literary Impressionism p. 42

1.4 'The Art of Fiction (1884) p. 48

2 Contexts (I): Empiricism and Psychology p. 59

2.1 The British Empiricists p. 64

2.1.1 John Locke p. 64

2.1.2 David Hume p. 69

2.2 Nineteenth-Century Empiricist Psychology p. 74

2.2.1 James Mill and J. S. Mill p. 76

2.2.2 Ernst Mach and Franz Brentano p. 79

2.2.3 William James (and Immanuel Kant) p. 81

3 Contexts (II): Aestheticism and the Performative p. 95

3.1 British Aestheticism p. 95

3.1.1 Walter Pater and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Immanuel Kant p. 96

3.1.2 Oscar Wilde p. 117

3.2 The Performative p. 121

3.2.1 J. Hillis Miller p. 122

3.2.2 J. L. Austin p. 124

3.2.3 Jacques Derrida p. 125

3.2.4 Judith Butler p. 127

3.2.5 Paul de Man p. 130

4 James's Late Theory of the Impression p. 133

4.1 The Preface to The Portrait of a Lady (1908) p. 134

4.2 The Other Prefaces p. 139

4.2.1 The Impression as Germ p. 140

4.2.2 The Impression as Point of View p. 145

Part II James's Practice of the Impression in the Late Novels

5 Impressions Received in The Ambassadors p. 155

5.1 Strether's Empiricist Education p. 157

5.2 The 'Visual Sense' versus the 'Moral Sense' p. 162

5.3 Strether's Aesthetic Education p. 165

5.3.1 Mementos Rather than Moments; Reflection Overwhelms Sensation p. 167

5.3.2 The Paterian Fruit of Gloriani's Garden: 'Live All You Can' p. 173

5.4 A Clash of Empiricist and Aesthetic Impressions p. 177

5.4.1 Misrecognition in Notre Dame: The Aesthetic Overwhelms the Empiricist Impression p. 177

5.4.2 Recognition by the River: The Empiricist Impression Punctures the Aesthetic Impression? p. 179

6 Impressions Made in The Wings of the Dove p. 198

6.1 Overt and Covert Plots p. 198

6.2 Milly the Aesthetic Critic p. 202

6.2.1 Paterian Impressions at Matcham, and a Subsequent Recognition p. 204

6.2.2 Wildean Impressions, and a Misrecognition in the National Gallery p. 209

6.2.3 Milly the Critic as Artist in London p. 214

6.3 Milly the Artist in Venice p. 222

6.3.1 Densher is Seduced by an 'Unexpected Impression' of Milly p. 222

6.3.2 Milly Sets Herself to Music, and Resignifies the Dove and Princess p. 224

6.3.3 Milly's Last Impression and Densher's Recognition p. 232

7 Impressions New and Used in The Golden Bowl p. 237

7.1 Impressions Codified p. 239

7.2 Impressions New and Used p. 243

7.2.1 Maggie the Critic and Artist: Nested Recognition after Matcham p. 244

7.2.2 Impressions of the Golden Bowl, and in it, and Two Recognitions Arising p. 255

7.2.3 Maggie Shapes Her Own Impressions to Prevent Further Melodrama and to Deceive Charlotte p. 265

7.2.4 Maggie Protects and then Sacrifices Adam through an Impression p. 272.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-292) and index.

ISBN:

9780198853510

0198853513

OCLC:

1140110275