Henry James: History, Narrative, Fiction

ISBN-13: 9780198119852 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 256 str.

Roslyn Jolly

Opis

This is a study of Henry James's changing attitudes toward history as a narrative model, moving from his early interest in "scientific" historiography to the radical, anti-historical character of his late works. These shifts can only be understood, the author argues, in terms of James's views on literary censorship and the politics of reading, and his engagement with the reading practices of marginalized groups: women, the working class, other cultures, and the avant-garde.

Recenzje

Jolly has produced a timely reminder, by way of a particular study of the large and complex case of Henry James, of the difficult and changing relationship between fiction and history. Treating James's voluminous work in little more than 200 pages inescapably entails selection, although here that selection is well-judged and the attendant danger of the imposition of an overly schematic thesis is, by and large, avoided.