James the Minimalist: An Essay on the Late Novels / John Brenkman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brenkman, John, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago University of Chicago Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An experiment in criticism that explores Henry Jamess late works through the lens of minimalism. Henry Jamess last completed novelsThe Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowlare among the greatest and most demanding achievements of modern fiction. The stories they tell are perverse: characters are compelling even at their most cruel, their actions often calculating and loving at the same time. The novels draw on deep-seated myths but end with an unsettling lack of finality. And their dense, involuted language tracks the movements of consciousness with uncompromising artistrythe ultimate flowering of the late James style. In this work of experimental criticism, John Brenkman is concerned with minimalism in two senses. First, with Jamess own minimalismhis intense scrutiny of couples and their erotic energies to the exclusion of so much else. And second, through a kind of minimalization in literary critical reading, Brenkman cuts through Jamess amplifications to find the essence that churns beneath the intricate prose of the late novels. Showing how James evokes not only protagonists subjectivity but more importantly what only exists in betweenthat is, between lovers, between spouses, between rivalsBrenkman reveals Jamess transformation of the marriage novel and excavation of the couple form itself.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

ESSAY ON THE LATE NOVELS

Naked Anachronism

Plots and Endings

Orphans, Widows, Widowers, Half-Orphans

Go-Betweens

Rivals

"Between Them"

Couples (1)

Couples (2)

Voice, Form, Lifeworld

NOTES THEORETICAL AND CRITICAL

Morality

Consciousness

Melodrama

Realism

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed March 17 2026)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780226849454

OCLC:

1579799921