Webster, Duncan (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
Official Date:	October 1984
Dates:	Date Event October 1984 Submitted
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Publication Status:	Unpublished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

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