Overview

Psychology in the Fiction of Henry James: Memory, Emotions, and Empathy focuses on the study of consciousness, also examines new ways to read fiction from a scientific perspective, one that draws upon early psychological theories and recent neuroscientific research. Freud and William James stand together as intellectual pioneers who contributed to our understanding of the revolutionary concept of consciousness. Meanwhile, Henry James devoted his life to the development of narrative methods that would extend the realm of Realism: a pursuit that led him to draw upon consciousness and experience alike. When examining these three figures, the key components of consciousness that they shared in common turn out to be memory, emotions, and empathy. This volume deals with theoretical works on those three concepts by the works of Freud, William James, and recent neuroscientists, as well as two narrative techniques Henry James devised to represent consciousness: ghosts and Free Indirect Discourse. Additionally, this book is an analysis of Henry’s major fictions to show how those scientific terms have been used to achieve a fresh reading of his novels. Overall, this volume demonstrates that the three components are elements in the dual-aspect monism that Freud proposed earlier.

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9781666905748

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Reviews

Teckyoung Kwon has written a wide-ranging, deeply learned study that combines perceptive readings of four seminal texts by James--The Portrait of a Lady, Turn of the Screw, The Ambassadors, and The Beast in the Jungle--with a remarkable grounding not only in literary theory and the critical literature but also in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. A key element of Kwon's argument is the influence on Henry James's fiction of his older brother William's treatise, The Principles of Psychology, whose psychology of consciousness complements Freud's psychology of the unconscious. I strongly recommend this book to scholars of James, literary modernism, literature, and psychology. --Peter L. Rudnytsky, University of Florida This book forms a fresh and innovative contribution to a line of research that has examined continuities between the philosophy of William James and the fiction of Henry James. Rather than focusing on the pragmatism that informs the work of both Jameses, as Richard Hocks, Ross Posnock, and Gregory Phipps have done, Kwon's study joins Paul B. Armstrong and others in bringing to bear the insights of modern neuroscience on the Jameses. Specifically, Kwon demonstrates how 'surplus emotion' is actualized in Henry James's 'ghosts, ' and how the discovery of the role played by 'mirror neurons' in empathy sheds light on the novelist's use of free indirect discourse, which enables readers to identify more readily with a focalized character. This book makes a crucial intervention in James studies and in narratology. --Gert Buelens, Ghent University

Author Information

Teckyoung Kwon is professor emeritus of English at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University.

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