Henry James, (Post)Modernist?

Abstract

An examination of the kinds of critical and cultural capital we have invested, and continue to invest, in "Henry James," "Henry James, (Post)Modernist?" traces a history of twentieth-century James criticism in order to speculate about the future of James studies in the twenty-first century. Reconsidering long-standing assumptions about James's status as a precursor of literary modernism, I argue that the "postmodern turn" in contemporary James studies has allowed us to locate and explore a more convincingly--and more convincingly historicized--modernist James. The essay concludes by considering the fate of James's work and figure in a globalized, digitalized, and post-literary postmodern culture.