1st Edition

Henry James, Impressionism, and the Public

By Daniel Hannah Copyright 2013
    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    Proposing a new approach to Jamesian aesthetics, Daniel Hannah examines the complicated relationship between Henry James's impressionism and his handling of 'the public.' Hannah challenges solely phenomenological or pictorial accounts of literary impressionism, instead foregrounding James's treatment of the word 'impression' as a mediatory unit that both resists and accommodates invasive publicity. Thus even as he envisages a breakdown between public and private at the end of the nineteenth century, James registers that breakdown not only as a threat but also as an opportunity for aesthetic gain. Beginning with a reading of 'The Art of Fiction' as both a public-forming essay and an aesthetic manifesto, Hannah's study examines James's responses to painterly impressionism and to aestheticism, and offers original readings of What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove, and The American Scene that treat James's articulation of impressionism in relation to the child, the future of the novel, and shifts in the American national imaginary. Hannah's study persuasively argues that throughout his career James returns to impressionability not only as a site of immense vulnerability in an age of rapid change but also as a crucible for reshaping, challenging, and adapting to the public sphere’s shifting forms.

    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;

    Biography

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

    "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