Webster, Duncan, 1958- (1984) Representing the economy and the economies of representation : readings in the fiction and criticism of Henry James. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is structured around exchanges between contemporary critical theory and the fiction, criticism and context of Henry James. In Chapter 1 I discuss readings of James and theories of reading as an active process. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a theoretical context for my work. Chapter 4 gives the background to James's use of "economy" as a critical term, discussed in Chapter 5. Chapters 6 and 7 introduce ideas of literary production and the relations of literary production, the changing nature of criticism and the market. Chapters 8 through to 12 focus on specific areas of James's work: the question of sexuality; journalism, the public and the private; travel, reading, and Daisy Miller; In the Cage, thrift, and utopia; early 20th century America. Certain dominant readings of James are challenged by a historical and theoretical framework that relates James to his economic context through locating him in the material and textual relations of literary production; through concepts central to his work and to Marxist criticism, absence and symptomatic reading; through structures of displacement whereby the economic resurfaces as a part of James's critical vocabulary; through questions of sexual difference and reading. My research demonstrates that James's writing is especially relevant to current critical debates; and through staging their meeting this thesis provides insights into both of these areas.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Criticism and interpretation
Date:	October 1984
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Goode, John, 1939- ; Gallafent, Edward
Extent:	460 p.
Language:	eng
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/39030

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