Metaphorical Analysis Of Illnesses In Henry James's Novellas

Henry James is a great realistic novelist bridging traditional and modern literature.In his novellas,illness,which as a special state of human body can be an ulterior reflection of socio-cultural phenomena and an important condition for philosophical thinking,is found prominently.However,former interpretations of his novellas from the perspective of illness metaphor are few and unsystematic.Therefore this study attempts to investigate the metaphorical meanings of the pervasive mentioning and description of illness in Henry James's novellas with the methodology of close reading and cultural studies.First,identification and classification of the illnesses in James's novellas is made on the basis of medical science.And according to the fates of different characters,illnesses in this study are divided into three categories:the fatal,the non-fatal but incurable,and the curable.Then,the symptoms,influence and causes of the different types of illnesses are set in the experiential contexts of the patients and the social contexts constructed in the novellas,through which the experiential similarities are found to make the explorations of illnesses as socio-cultural and existential metaphor possible.The illnesses at first metaphorically reflect the social illnesses of the societies during the process of globalization and capitalization,namely the visible alienation of people and the invisible ideological conflicts.Based on this finding,the study goes back to the texts again,examining the four different statuses of the bodies of the characters,namely the healthy bodies,the bodies with illnesses cured,the bodies with incurable but non-fatal illnesses and the bodies with fatal illnesses,through which different types of beings are explored.In Henry James's fictional world,under the background of globalization,fixed truths in one ideology turn to be opposite fallacies in the other.During the progress of capitalization,noble humanity is depreciated and becomes the opposite non-humanity,which manifests the absurdity of the world and the alienation of people.In this absurd and alienated fictional world,people with healthy bodies may not have healthy humanity,while people with healthy humanity are suffering spiritual suppression from dominant ideologies as well as their painful and freedom-restricting illnesses.Some of them become beings of alienation and bad faith,while some of them who stuck to pursuing their responsible freedom are deconstructed both physically and spiritually.As realistic novellas,the fictional world in James's works is an epitome of the real world at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century.With retrospection to the present reality,the phenomena of alienation and absurdity of the world are still prominent and even are worsening.As for how to exist,existential enlightenment can be gained from the different modes of beings reflected in the illnesses of the characters.