Henry James : history, narrative, fiction /
This is a study of Henry James's changing attitudes to history as a narrative model, tracing the development from his early interest in 'scientific' historiography to the radically antihistorical character of his late works. James's use of the term 'history' was influen...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Language Notes: | English. |
| Published: |
Oxford : New York :
Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press,
1993.
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| Series: | Oxford English monographs.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | This is a study of Henry James's changing attitudes to history as a narrative model, tracing the development from his early interest in 'scientific' historiography to the radically antihistorical character of his late works. James's use of the term 'history' was influenced by developments in nineteenth-century historiography, but was also embedded in the complex of defensive manoeuvres through which Victorian culture sought to control its anxiety about the power of fiction. Reading James's novels in the light of nineteenth-century debates about the morality of authorship and the politics of reading, Dr Jolla finds that fiction moves from being history's censored 'other' in the early works to being a valued mode of problem-solving in the later fiction. This shift may be seen as the product of James's increasing engagement with the reading practices of groups marginalized by high Victorian culture: women, the working class, other cultures, and the avant-garde. Drawing on contemporary narrative theory, and providing illuminating readings of a large number of James's novels, Roslyn Jolly has written a sophisticated and persuasive analysis of James's shifting definitions of history and fiction. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xi, 239 pages) |
| Format: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 224-234) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780191671227 0191671223 |