Henry James and the Writing of Race and Nation (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) [Hardcover]

Sara Blair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0521497507 | ISBN-13: 978-0521497503

In this study, Blair challenges Henry James' perceived status as the literary figurehead of an impregnable high culture. Emphasizing James' engagement in forms of popular culture (including ethnography, minstrelsy, photography, and journalism), Blair traces the ways in which his writing, steeped in these forms, acted as a force in the forging of racial, national, and cultural identity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is much to praise in Blair's book: her mastery of the relevant scholarship, her illuminating, often brilliant, analyses of individual texts, her wide-ranging insight into the events, places, institutions, and ideas that engaged James's mind to become the experience he transformed into art." Elsa Nettels, The Henry James Review

"This book is an important contribution to the continuing debates about James's place in literature and about the place of high art in the development of any culture at all." Choice

"...Henry James and the Writing of Race and Nation manifests many of the strengths ofmodern-day criticism...." Jim Barloon, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920

"This excellent study of Henry James marks an important turn in the scholarship of American literature, one that provokes reflection on why it has taken so long to read James through the precarious constitution of racial and national identities. ...Blair candidly describes how competing critical imperatives have enriched her approach.... The reader cannot help but notice how gracefully her writing flows...." The New England Quarterly

Book Description

Mixed Performances describes a new Henry James, who, rather than being paraded as a beacon of high culture, actually expresses a nuanced understanding of and engagement with popular culture. Arguing against recent trends in critical studies which locate racial resistance in popular culture, Sara Blair uncovers this resistance within literature and high modernism. Blair makes a powerful case for reading James with a sense of sustained contradiction and her project absorbingly argues for the historical and ongoing importance of literary texts and discourses to the study of culture and cultural value.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 26, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521497507
• ISBN-13: 978-0521497503
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,099,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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