James the Minimalist
An Essay on the Late Novels
Seiten
2026
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
9780226849447 (ISBN)
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
9780226849447 (ISBN)
- Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Mai 2026)
- Portofrei ab CHF 40
- Auch auf Rechnung
- Artikel merken
An experiment in criticism that explores Henry James’s late works through the lens of minimalism.
Henry James’s last completed novels—The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl—are among the greatest and most demanding achievements of modern fiction. The stories they tell are perverse: characters are compelling even at their most cruel, their actions often calculating and loving at the same time. The novels draw on deep-seated myths but end with an unsettling lack of finality. And their dense, involuted language tracks the movements of consciousness with uncompromising artistry—the ultimate flowering of the Late James style.
In this work of experimental criticism, John Brenkman is concerned with minimalism in two senses. First, with James’s own minimalism—his intense scrutiny of couples and their erotic energies to the exclusion of so much else. And second, through a kind of minimalization in literary critical reading, Brenkman cuts through James’s amplifications to find the essence that churns beneath the intricate prose of the late novels. Showing how James evokes not only protagonists’ subjectivity but more importantly what only exists in-between—that is, between lovers, between spouses, between rivals—Brenkman reveals James’s transformation of the marriage novel and excavation of the couple form itself.
Henry James’s last completed novels—The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl—are among the greatest and most demanding achievements of modern fiction. The stories they tell are perverse: characters are compelling even at their most cruel, their actions often calculating and loving at the same time. The novels draw on deep-seated myths but end with an unsettling lack of finality. And their dense, involuted language tracks the movements of consciousness with uncompromising artistry—the ultimate flowering of the Late James style.
In this work of experimental criticism, John Brenkman is concerned with minimalism in two senses. First, with James’s own minimalism—his intense scrutiny of couples and their erotic energies to the exclusion of so much else. And second, through a kind of minimalization in literary critical reading, Brenkman cuts through James’s amplifications to find the essence that churns beneath the intricate prose of the late novels. Showing how James evokes not only protagonists’ subjectivity but more importantly what only exists in-between—that is, between lovers, between spouses, between rivals—Brenkman reveals James’s transformation of the marriage novel and excavation of the couple form itself.
John Brenkman is distinguished professor emeritus of comparative literature and English at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and Baruch College, where he also directed the US-Europe Seminar. He is the author of four previous books, most recently, Mood and Trope: The Rhetoric and Poetics of Affect. He lives in Livingston, Montana. More information at johnbrenkman.com.
Essay on the Late Novels
Naked Anachronism
Plots and Endings
Orphans, Widows, Widowers, Half-Orphans
Go-Betweens
Rivals
“Between Them”
Couples (1)
Couples (2)
Voice, Form, Lifeworld
Notes Theoretical and Critical
Morality
Consciousness
Melodrama
Realism
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 25.5.2026 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 140 x 216 mm |
| Gewicht | 454 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturgeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-13 | 9780226849447 / 9780226849447 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
Paul Celans Poetik der Mehrsprachigkeit
Buch | Hardcover (2025)
De Gruyter (Verlag)
CHF 153,90
