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Henry James and the "Aliens"
In Possession of the American Scene
Series: - Amsterdam Monographs in American Studies, Volume: 10
Author:
Henry James and the âAliensâ intervenes substantially in current debates in James studies, most notably in the key areas of cultural studies, ethnic studies and queer studies. Focusing throughout on questions of identity, and most prominently on how the latter is given shape in the very form of the late style, the book finds that Jamesâs response to the ethnic other can be grasped neither as an attempt to police, supervise and master the other, nor as a politics of non-identical surrender to that other. Instead, there is a continuum of identityâakin to the âcriminal continuityâ that James registers throughout the American sceneâin which self and other, native and alien, subject and object adopt alternate roles of control and submission. Both are at times in possession of the American scene and possessed by that scene. Jamesian sexual identity, too, proves to be constantly reconstituted in transitive processes of signification that make it impossible to fix the âIâ or the âotherâ within a fixed frameworkâbe that framework a heterosexual or a homosexual one. The eroticism that strikingly informs the late James can therefore only be captured, if at all, under the rubric of the âqueer.â
Awarded the American Studies Network Book Prize 2004.
From the Jury report: âGert Buelens of the University of Ghent, Belgium, is the author of Henry James and the âAliensâ in Possession of the American Scene (Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2002). This book is an excellent analysis of Henry Jamesâs The American Scene. But it is much more than just an accurate analysis of this text. The author also analyzes the relevant and recent studies on Jamesâs themes of race, class and gender, and he makes readers rethink the whole of Jamesâs production through such key lenses as âthe aliens,â âconsumerism,â and âhomoeroticism.â Buelens pays an impeccable attention to style and vocabulary and his rich knowledge of all the most important studies on each of these categories lends his book an extraordinary depth. To offer new and fresh insights in a seemingly endless stream of Henry James studies is, indeed, an extraordinary achievement and therefore this book is awarded the American Studies Network Book Prize 2004.â
From the Jury report: âGert Buelens of the University of Ghent, Belgium, is the author of Henry James and the âAliensâ in Possession of the American Scene (Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2002). This book is an excellent analysis of Henry Jamesâs The American Scene. But it is much more than just an accurate analysis of this text. The author also analyzes the relevant and recent studies on Jamesâs themes of race, class and gender, and he makes readers rethink the whole of Jamesâs production through such key lenses as âthe aliens,â âconsumerism,â and âhomoeroticism.â Buelens pays an impeccable attention to style and vocabulary and his rich knowledge of all the most important studies on each of these categories lends his book an extraordinary depth. To offer new and fresh insights in a seemingly endless stream of Henry James studies is, indeed, an extraordinary achievement and therefore this book is awarded the American Studies Network Book Prize 2004.â
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Then Is the American Scene?
One: Possessing the American Scene: Race and Vulgarity, Seduction and Judgment
Two: Consuming, Performing and Judging the American Scene
Three: Enjoying the American Scene: The Overpowering âPresenceâ of Sites, Buildings and âAliensâ
Four: Queering the American Scene: Jamesâs Obliquely Possessive Plottings of Desire
Index
Introduction: What Then Is the American Scene?
One: Possessing the American Scene: Race and Vulgarity, Seduction and Judgment
Two: Consuming, Performing and Judging the American Scene
Three: Enjoying the American Scene: The Overpowering âPresenceâ of Sites, Buildings and âAliensâ
Four: Queering the American Scene: Jamesâs Obliquely Possessive Plottings of Desire
Index