The Rise of Feminism in the Works by Henry James: Some Narratological Insights

Iren Boyarkina

doi:10.5937/zrffp51-32998

Iren Boyarkina University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy, Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/zrffp51-32998

Keywords: Henry James, feminism, gender roles, gender studies, narratology, narratological analysis

Abstract

James’ fiction crosses many of the artificially imposed borders and often deals explicitly with social changes and their consequences, for example, the emerging role and power of women in society. James was among the first American writers to introduce feministic issues into his works. This paper explores the theme of feminism in “The Turn of the Screw”, “The Jolly Corner" and The Bostonians emphasizing that in the latter James raises the problem of possibility for women of their simultaneous self-realization in family, at work, and in social life. This is still one of the most burning issues in feministic writing thus making James relevant in the 21st century. Analysing The Bostianians and shorter works by Henry James, the paper demonstrates that the writer pays a lot of attention to the issues of female personal freedom and self-realization determined by the loyalty to the institution of marriage. James depicts the growing tendency of alienation and misunderstanding between men and women, underlined in his short works and The Bostonians.

References

Ames, L. T. (1886). The Bostonians. Woman’s Journal, XVII, 82–83.

Bal, M. (1997). Narratology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Beard, M. (2014). The Public Voice of Women. London Review of Books. Retrieved from https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n06/mary-beard/the-public-voice-of-women.

Boyarkina, I. (2008). The Rise of Feminism in America. The Bostonians by Henry James. Byelorussian State University Journal, 2, 103–106.

Boyarkina, I. (2020). Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Olaf Stapledon’s Sirius. In: A. Gutty (Ed.), Romantic Weltleteratur of the Western World (pp. 145–159). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Freud, Z. (1997). Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria. NY: Touchstone.

James, H. (1984). The Bostonians. New York: Penguin Books.

James, H. (1966). The Turn of the Screw. NY: Norton.

James, H. (2001). “The Jolly Corner.” Selected Tales. London: Penguin. 550–576.

Hoeveler, D. (2004). Frankenstein, Feminism, and Literary Theory. In: Ester Schor (Ed.). Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley (pp. 45–62). Cambridge: CUP.

Kerr, H. (1972). Mediums, and Spirit-Rappers, and Roaring Radicals: Spiritualism in American Literature, 1850–1900. Urbana, III, 190–222.

Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: OUP.

Long, R. (1964). A Source for Dr Mary Prance. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, XIX, 87–88.

Lubbock, P. (Еd.). (1920). The Letters of Henry James, I. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Matthiessen, F. & Murdock, K. (Еds.). (1981). The Notebooks of Henry James. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pavel, T. (1985). The Poetics of Plot. Minneapolis: University of Minessota Press.

Petty, L. (2005). The Political is Personal. The Feminist Lesson of Henry James’s s The Bostonians. Women’s studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 34, 377–403.

Poovey, M. (1984). The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Rimmon-Kenan, S. (2008). Narrative Fiction, London: Routledge.

Troesch, E. (2017). Before Einstein. London: Anthem Press.

Welter, B. (1966). The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly. 18 (2), 151–174.