Henry James in Context

David McWhirter

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780521514613
• eBook ISBN: 9781316152959
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Long misread as a novelist conspicuously lacking in historical consciousness, Henry James has often been viewed as detached from, and uninterested in, the social, political, and material realities of his time. As this volume demonstrates, however, James was acutely responsive not only to his era's changing attitudes toward gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity, but also to changing conditions of literary production and reception, the rise of consumerism and mass culture, and the emergence of new technologies and media, of new apprehensions of time and space. These essays portray the author and his works in the context of the modernity that determined, formed, interested, appalled, and/or provoked his always curious mind. With contributions from an international cast of distinguished scholars, Henry James in Context provides a map of leading edge work in contemporary James studies, an invaluable reference work for students and scholars, and a blueprint for possible future directions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Chronology
• PART ONE Life and career, times and places
• PART TWO Historical and cultural contexts
• PART THREE Reception
• Further reading
• Index