James, Degas, and the Emersonian gaze

Article Abstract:

Different theoretical perspectives have been argued in an effort to prove superiority and wrest the primacy once held by the formalists. One instance of disagreement involves Henry James. During the latter part of the 1970s and the early years of the 1980s, Fredric Jameson revised the aesthetics established by James and based the revision on his own marxist principles. On the other hand, Harold Bloom edited two collections of essays which were anti-marxist and deconstructionist while reassessing James's work as allegorical. This argument over the aesthetic of Henry James is discussed.

Analysis, Fiction, Criticism

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The embarrassment of melodrama: masculinity in the early James

Article Abstract:

The most prominent aspect of Henry James's early fiction is the balancing of a passive masculine figure with an active one. James generally follows a traditional definition of masculinity which relies on action. James' first novel 'Watch and Ward' is perhaps the best example of the doubling of masculinity. The common criticism against it is that the narratives are too melodramatic. While melodrama effectively depicts masculinity to a certain degree, beyond that masculinity can only be represented through action.

Males, Watch and Ward (Book)

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Getting fixed: feminine identity and scopic crisis in the 'Turn of the Screw.'

Article Abstract:

Henry James's 'Turn of the Screw' is analyzed in terms of the formation of an identity defined by the gaze or the look. The active and passive aspects of looking define the identity of a middle-class governess. She cannot be seen and must be invisible in the nineteenth-century social circle, yet she must observe or be an active participant in observation. She alienates herself by looking and expects stability by being looked at. Her identity is defined by visual dynamics.

Authors, English, English writers, Gaze, Identity

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