What is the relation between the novel and ethical thought? Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that the answer to this question lies not in the content of a work of fiction but in its form. Stuart Burrows explores the relationship between James's ethical vision and his densely metaphorical style, his experiments with narrative time, and his radical reimagining of perspective. Each chapter takes as its starting point a different aspect of an issue at the heart of moral philosophy: the act of promising. Engaging with a range of moral philosophers and literary theorists, most notably David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida, Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that James's formal experimentation represents a significant contribution to ethical thought in its own right.
What is the relation between the novel and ethical thought? Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that the answer to this question lies not in the content of a work of fiction but in its form. Stuart Burrows explores the relationship between James's ethical vision and his densely metaphorical style, his experiments with narrative time, and his radical reimagining of perspective. Each chapter takes as its starting point a different aspect of an issue at the heart of moral philosophy: the act of promising. Engaging with a range of moral philosophers and literary theorists, most notably David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida, Henry James and the Promise of Fiction argues that James's formal experimentation represents a significant contribution to ethical thought in its own right.
Introduction. The Promise of Art; 1. Promising Others: The Portrait of a Lady; 2. Promising for Others: The Turn of the Screw; 3. Promising Oneself: The Ambassadors; 4. Promising to Love: The Wings of the Dove; 5. Promising to Lie: The Golden Bowl; 6. Promising the Future: 'The Beast in the Jungle'; Conclusion. Promising the Past: 'The Figure in the Carpet'; Bibliography; Notes.
This book argues that the moral issues raised by a work of fiction are as much a product of its form as of its content.
Stuart Burrows is Associate Professor of English at Brown University. His first book was A Familiar Strangeness: American Fiction and the Language of Photography, 1839-1945 (2008). He has won the American Literary Society 1921 Prize in American Literature.
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