Henry James, Impressionism, and the Public

ISBN-13: 9781138261471 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 232 str.

Daniel Hannah

Opis

Proposing a new approach to Jamesian aesthetics, Daniel Hannah examines the complicated relationship between Henry James's impressionism and his handling of 'the public.' In readings of 'The Art of Fiction,' What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove and The American Scene, among other works, Hannah shows James continually returning to the impression as a site for exploiting, resisting and re-imagining a perceived breakdown between the private and the public.

Recenzje

"Focusing on the tendency in Impressionism to trouble distinctions between the public and the private, Daniel Hannah’s sophisticated and compelling book opens up broad new views of much that makes Henry James’s writing meaningful and much that has yet to be seen in the problem of Impressionism." --Jesse E. Matz, Kenyon College, USA

"Hannah effectively knits together two well-established strands of critical enquiry in James' studies that prove mutually supportive. The first considers the author's myriad aesthetic debts and affiliations: to visual culture and portraiture, and to the aestheticist discourses of Pater and Wilde ... The second ... addresses James's complex engagement with late-nineteenth-century contexts and cultures of exposure, documenting his responses to and negotiations of the literary marketplace and reading public." --Review of English Studies

"Hannah’s text is a valuable addition to the body of work on literary impressionism, joining a large and ever-changing body of scholarship on a fascinating subject." --English Literature in Transition

"An excellent book by Daniel Hannah illustrates how a familiar topic—James and impressionism—can be revitalized by a creative synthesis of close reading and historical research…A number of scholars have explored the contexts of 'Franco-American impressionist painting' and British aestheticism, but this book links cultural history with astute and original close readings, both of relatively neglected texts and those that have incited well-known debates." --Sarah B. Daugherty, American Literary Scholarship

Spis treści

Introduction; Chapter 1 Henry James, Painterly Impressionism, Publicity, and Spectacle; Chapter 2 Jamesian Impressionism and British Aestheticism: Influence and Exposure; Chapter 3 “Taking in”: Impressionability, Children, and Education in What Maisie Knew; Chapter 4 The Future of the Novel”: Impressions and the Extrarepresentational in The Wings of the Dove; Chapter 5 Impressions and the Nation in The American Scene; concl Conclusion;

O autorze

Daniel Hannah is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lakehead University, Canada.