The Detached Involvement: A Reading of The Awkward Age

Journal Article

Sadiq, Ebtisam Ali . 1990

• Publication Work Type: Literary Criticism
• Tags: Henry James
• Magazine \ Newspaper: Journal of the College of Education [Ain Shams U, Egypt]
• Issue Number: 1
• Volume Number: 14
• Pages: 43-59

Publication Abstract

This paper explores Henry James’ conflict between subjective involvement in his literary text and objective detachment from its elements. His failure in drama has induced him to aspire for literary objectivity. But his subjective epistemology perpetuates the importance of human consciousness in receiving experience and reproducing it in art. His short story “The Alter of the Dead” embodies this conflict. His novel The Awkward Age resolves it.