Henry James: A Border Intellectual Confined To The Predicament Of The Exile

Exile, approached as "an enforced and radical displacement," can be either involuntary or voluntary. In contemporary world, numerous theories concerning exile are interwoven with various aspects of literary studies.In terms of the psychological approach, exile can be briefly categorized into two modes: exoteric exile, a permanent physical departure from the land and a banishment to areas outsides of the boundaries of the country; and esoteric exile, a withdrawal on the part of individuals from the empirical realm and a desire or need to live predominantly in their inner world.In the realm of cultural studies, many theories of exile focus on the esoteric exile of intellectuals. Among them, Edward Said asserts that an exile is likely to exist in a median state, a predicament, in which he can neither completely be assimilated into the new setting nor fully disencumbered of the old. Such an exile is equipped with a double perspective that prevents him from seeing things in isolation. Every scene or situation in the new culture necessarily draws on its counterpart in the old culture. Thus, in the mind of border intellectuals, both the new and the old environments are occurring together contrapuntally.Through evaluating Said's notion of "contrapuntal," however, another cultural critic Abdul JanMohamed points out that the music metaphor, "contrapuntal," tends to obscure the border intellectual's agency as well as the orientation of his or her intentionality towards two cultures. That is to say, even though these intellectuals are situated on the cultural borders, they maintain their own inclinations towards the original and host cultures, and choose their own ways to grope out the "median state"—the predicament of border intellectuals. In one essay, JanMohamed defines the concept of "border," and claims that intellectuals may choose different modes of border-crossings or choose to situate themselves on the border, according totheir intellectual orientation of intentionality towards two cultures. Based on these differing intentionalities, JanMohamed also draws a distinction between two categories of exilic intellectuals situated on the border—the syncretic border intellectual and the specular border intellectual.To some extent, Henry James, as a writer lived in both American and European cultures, maintained certain features of both the syncretic border intellectual and the specular border intellectual. Yet, he was excluded from these two categories, because of his special orientation of intentionality towards two cultures. He was a particular border intellectual, who had been struggling in the predicament of border intellectuals all his life.Through examining James's life and three outstanding international novels—Daisy Miller (1878), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Wings of the Dove (1902), this thesis explores his special cultural inclinations as a border intellectual. The main contents of this thesis will be divided into three chapters:In the first chapter, the characteristics of syncretic border intellectuals are revealed through analyzing the characters in James's international novels. Yet, James could not solve the predicament of border intellectuals through this way, for he could not get rid of the tension caused by cultural conflicts.In the second chapter, the characteristics of specular border intellectuals are examined in James's three international novels. Yet, the special cultural inclination formed after his voluntary exile in the European culture led to his crossing and recrossing the border of two cultures. In the characters, we can see the similar experience as well.In the third chapter, a border survey of literary history is made to show that James's special cultural inclinations were not only the traits of an individual subject but also the common features of a number of contemporary border intellectuals in the late 19th century.