Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Furman, Andrew
Abstract
The three novels of Henry James’s “major phase” have alienated many readers in James’s own time and today. I draw on the philosophical school of phenomenology, in particular the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and a recent extension by the philosopher Richard Kearney, to suggest that a lack of self-touch by characters in these novels has contributed in a significant but previously unnoticed way to many readers’ sense that these novels feel frustratingly intangible. I make a comparison to the instances of self-touch in other Edwardian novels to underline the difference. I suggest that James is putting forward a model of “middle-distance intimacy” in which intimates orbit each other at a fixed distance, neither coming closer nor moving further away. This kind of intimacy, for James, privileges the eye that sees from across the room over the hand that touches from up close. While this model of intimacy perplexed many readers in James’s time and later, it is a valuable exploration of a different yet—for some—no less satisfactory kind of emotional life.
Extent
146 p.
Recommended Citation
Martin, James, "SELF-TOUCH IN HENRY JAMES'S MAJOR PHASE" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present. 1281.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/1281
Identifier
FA00014144
Comments
Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (PhD)--Florida Atlantic University, 2023.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.