Language and Knowledge in the Late Novels of Henry James

Bellringer, Alan W.; Yeazell, Ruth Bernard

doi:10.2307/3726946

Cited by 2 publications

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“…It is interesting to point out another change in James's characters: at first, as soon as they arrive from America, they see themselves as similar to Europeans and get excited about finding things in common. But then, the more time passes, the more they discover themselves to be different and tend to reaffirm their identity, just as happens to Isabel (Yeazell, 1980).…”

Section: Ethical Awareness In the Portrait Of A Ladymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics between two worlds: The moral significance of Italian places in Henry James’s literature

Abbate

2024

Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies

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This article questions the ethical profile of some of the characters in Henry James’s literature in relation to concrete life places and situations. It refers first to the Diary of a Man of Fifty, because this short tale anticipates the themes that would dominate James's later works. It focuses in particular on Portrait of a Lady, not without mentioning Daisy Miller, because the descriptions of Italy in those pages help to flesh out the themes that the article wishes to highlight: the encounter between America and Europe (Italy in particular, with Florence and Rome), and the way circumstances determine the moral development of James’s characters. Self-consciousness through conflict with the surrounding world is one of the most vivid topics in James's literature. The personal condition of those who left the USA to settle in Europe became the subject of many of his novels, with all the baggage of incomplete experiences, anxieties and the pain of an integration never fully realized.

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Section: Ethical Awareness In the Portrait Of A Ladymentioning

confidence: 99%