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A Superficial Reading Of Henry James: Preoccupations With The Material World,Used
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Do the surfaces matter? In this provocative book, A Superficial Reading of Henry James: Preoccupations with the Material World, Thomas J. Otten demonstrates that surfaces matter profoundly. Taking seriously the accessories of Henry Jamess fictionthe china and bricabrac, the antique cabinets and tapestries, the ribbons and hatsthis book argues that Jamess famous ambiguity is a material state, an indeterminate zone where the difference between essence and ornament disappears. Ranging between fictions as wellknown as The Portrait of a Lady (whose heroine is celebrated for her psychological complexity) and ones as understudied as 'RoseAgathe' (whose heroine is a hairdressers manikin), Otten suggests that the distinction between what counts as thematic depth and what counts as physical surface is, for James, impossible to maintain. Achieving a superficial reading of Henry James means demonstrating the persistence of the material within the novelists most conceptual formations of meaningan argument with important consequences for literary theory, as Otten shows in his concluding chapters.Eloquently written and guided by a perverse love for the superfluous detail, this book makes an important contribution to a fastgrowing area of the humanities, one newly committed to the serious study of material culture, the concrete experiences of everyday life, and the history of the physical senses.
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