Henry James

Proposing a new approach to Jamesian aesthetics, Daniel Hannah examines the complicated relationship between Henry Jamess impressionism and his handling of the public. Hannah challenges solely phenomenological or pictorial accounts of literary impressionism, instead foregrounding Jamess treatment of the word impression as a mediatory unit that both resists and accommodates invasive publicity. Thus even as he envisages a breakdown between public and private at the end of the nineteenth century, James registers that breakdown not only as a threat but also as an opportunity for aesthetic gain. Beginning with a reading of The Art of Fiction as both a public-forming essay and an aesthetic manifesto, Hannahs study examines Jamess responses to painterly impressionism and to aestheticism, and offers original readings of What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove, and The American Scene that treat Jamess articulation of impressionism in relation to the child, the future of the novel, and shifts in the American national imaginary. Hannahs study persuasively argues that throughout his career James returns to impressionability not only as a site of immense vulnerability in an age of rapid change but also as a crucible for reshaping, challenging, and adapting to the public spheres shifting forms.