Intensely Family: The Inheritance of Family Shame and the Autobiographies of Henry James (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) - Softcover

Holly, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 029914724X ISBN 13: 9780299147242

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995

Synopsis

In 1911, at the age of 68, Henry James began A Small Boy and Others with the intent of writing a memoir of his brother William and other members of his family. Within months, however, James's interest in others was replaced by a desire to trace his personal development. Subsequently, he began a lengthy examination of both his own past and the psychological heritage of the James family in a two-volume autobiography, A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother. Through the process of writing his autobiography, James maintained that “at every step of the process [he was becoming] . . . more intensely ‘family.’”

Documenting the rich connotations of James's phrase “intensely family,” Carol Holly examines the shame–based psychology bred by his parents and the impact of that psychology on James's literary career. Interpreting the act of autobiography as a biographical event, Holly also draws on a collection of James's largely unpublished correspondence with his sister–in–law and nephew from the period when he was writing A Small Boy and Notes . She provides a contextual interpretation of the autobiographies and offers a detailed look at the complex emotional life of James the autobiographer.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Holly is professor of English at St. Olaf College. She is a member of the editorial board of The Henry James Review and is a past president of the Henry James Society.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 029914724X
• ISBN 13: 9780299147242
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224