Narrative James: the different inflections of Henry James in narrative theory

This thesis takes a case study approach to investigating some key critics in the historical development of narrative studies; it argues that in their engagement with Henry James’s critical writings, especially the New York Edition prefaces, they have directly or indirectly misrepresented the complexity of the texts themselves, in order to advance their own theoretical agendas. These critics are Percy Lubbock and his formalist approach in Chapter One; Wayne C. Booth and his rhetorical approach in Chapter Two; J. Hillis Miller and his deconstructive approach in Chapter Three; and the interdisciplinary approaches of Martha Nussbaum’s moral philosophy and Rita Charon’s narrative medicine in Chapter Four. The main goal of this thesis is to open up significant questions or nuances about narrative that have been overlooked, through close engagement with the critical writings in question. At the same time, it also attempts to map out how these nuances shed light on the historical development of narrative studies. The focus of the thesis is, in other words, upon the history of narrative theory as informed by the different inflections of Henry James. In the process, the thesis seeks not to reach conclusive views about existing theoretical issues, nor come up with new theories, but rather to demonstrate the theoretical vitality of the questions raised by the dialogue between the works of the selected critics and the critical writings of James upon which they draw. The thesis offers a historical, single-author approach that contributes to both narrative theory and Jamesian scholarship; it demonstrates the merits of revisiting James’s critical writings in rethinking narrative concepts beyond the narrative techniques with which James is usually, albeit reductively, associated.