Henry James and the Art of Impressions
Henry James criticized the impressionism that was revolutionizing French painting and fiction. He satirized the British aesthetic movement whose keystone was impressionist criticism. So why, time and again in important parts of his literary work, did James use the word 'impression'?

Henry James and the Art of Impressions argues that James tried to wrest the impression from the impressionists and to recast it in his own art of the novel. Interdisciplinary in its range, philosophical and literary in its focus, the book shows the place of James's work within the wider cultural history of impressionism. It draws on painting, philosophy, psychology, literature, and critical theory to examine James's art criticism, early literary criticism, travel writing, reflections on his own fiction, and the three great novels of his major phase, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. It shows how the language of impressions enables James to represent the most intense moments of consciousness of his characters. It argues that the Jamesian impression is best understood as a family of related ideas bound together by James's attempt to reconcile the novel's value as a mimetic form with its value as a transformative creative activity.
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Henry James and the Art of Impressions
Henry James criticized the impressionism that was revolutionizing French painting and fiction. He satirized the British aesthetic movement whose keystone was impressionist criticism. So why, time and again in important parts of his literary work, did James use the word 'impression'?

Henry James and the Art of Impressions argues that James tried to wrest the impression from the impressionists and to recast it in his own art of the novel. Interdisciplinary in its range, philosophical and literary in its focus, the book shows the place of James's work within the wider cultural history of impressionism. It draws on painting, philosophy, psychology, literature, and critical theory to examine James's art criticism, early literary criticism, travel writing, reflections on his own fiction, and the three great novels of his major phase, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. It shows how the language of impressions enables James to represent the most intense moments of consciousness of his characters. It argues that the Jamesian impression is best understood as a family of related ideas bound together by James's attempt to reconcile the novel's value as a mimetic form with its value as a transformative creative activity.
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Henry James and the Art of Impressions

Henry James and the Art of Impressions

by John Scholar
Henry James and the Art of Impressions

Henry James and the Art of Impressions

by John Scholar

Hardcover

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Overview

Henry James criticized the impressionism that was revolutionizing French painting and fiction. He satirized the British aesthetic movement whose keystone was impressionist criticism. So why, time and again in important parts of his literary work, did James use the word 'impression'?

Henry James and the Art of Impressions argues that James tried to wrest the impression from the impressionists and to recast it in his own art of the novel. Interdisciplinary in its range, philosophical and literary in its focus, the book shows the place of James's work within the wider cultural history of impressionism. It draws on painting, philosophy, psychology, literature, and critical theory to examine James's art criticism, early literary criticism, travel writing, reflections on his own fiction, and the three great novels of his major phase, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. It shows how the language of impressions enables James to represent the most intense moments of consciousness of his characters. It argues that the Jamesian impression is best understood as a family of related ideas bound together by James's attempt to reconcile the novel's value as a mimetic form with its value as a transformative creative activity.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780198853510
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 07/22/2020
Series: Oxford English Monographs
Pages: 310
Product dimensions: 9.10(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Scholar, Lecturer in English Literature, University of Reading

John Scholar is a Lecturer in the Department of English Literature, University of Reading.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Resisting Impressionism Part I: James's Theories of the Impression: Texts and Contexts1: James's Criticism of Existing Theories of the Impression, 1872-882: Contexts (I): Empiricism and Psychology3: Contexts (II): Aestheticism and the Performative4: James's Late Theory of the ImpressionPart II: James's Practice of the Impression in the Late Novels5: Impressions Received in The Ambassadors6: Impressions Made in The Wings of the Dove7: Impressions New and Used in The Golden Bowl
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