The Figure of Consciousness: William James, Henry James and Edith Wharton

by Jill M. Kress

Overview

Through analysis of metaphors of consciousness in the philosophy and fiction of William James, Henry James and Edith Wharton, this work traces the significance of representations of knowledge, gender and social class, revealing how writers conceived of the self in modern literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415864985
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/11/2014
Series:	Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jill M. Kress earned her Ph.D. (1998) from the University of Rochester. Currently she teaches American literature and writing at St. John Fisher College. Her work has appeared in The Journal of the History of Ideas and Salamander.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Studies in Nature and Interiors: The Discourse of Consciousness in Nineteenth-Century Science 1

Chapter 2 Contesting Metaphors and the Discourse of Consciousness in William James 27

Chapter 3 The Structure of Consciousness: Henry James's Portrait of a Lady and the Drama of Social Relations 61

Chapter 4 Relations, Receptacles and Worlds of Experience: Gendered Metaphors and The Golden Bowl 87

Chapter 5 Designing Our Interiors: Self-Consciousness and Social Awareness in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth 131

Chapter 6 The Price of a Conscious Self in Edith Wharton's: The Age of Innocence 161

Notes 187

Bibliography 237

Index 261