Henry James's last romance
Subtitle: making sense of the past and the American scene
By: Beverly Haviland.
Series: Cambridge studies in American literature and culture
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, U.K; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 275
Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Knowledge -- History; James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Knowledge -- America; James, Henry, 1843-1916; James, Henry, 1843-1916; James, Henry, 1843-1916; Literature and history -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Culture in literature; Atlantic States -- Historiography; United States -- Historiography; United States -- In literature
Description: In this major new study of Henry James's classic text of cultural criticism, The American Scene, Beverly Haviland shows how James confronted the vexing problem of making sense of the past. In this record of his 1904-5 return to America and in his unfinished novels, The Sense of the Past and The Ivory Tower, he interpreted the social conflicts that seemed to be paralyzing relations between men and women, between black and white Americans, between "natives" and "aliens," between defenders of taste and censors of waste. Although James has been represented as conservative by liberal critics, it is just such simplifying oppositions that his method of interpretation works to transform.

Haviland's own metonymical method follows James's interpretative practice by bringing historical and theoretical readings of these texts into conversation with each other.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-266) and index.