| Hypothesis. This dissertation addresses the following: (1) whether the death of childhood held a dominant position in Henry James's study of children and childhood, itself a prominent aspect of his entire literary output; (2) whether James's own peculiar childhood seriously affected his characterization of children; and (3) whether one can attribute to James a sense of prescience regarding the brutalization, neglect, and abuse of contemporary children and the incipient threat to childhood.; Methodology. There is scant literary scholarship directed towards James's premise regarding the death of childhood. Thus, in researching this subject, the methodology was a close textual examination of such primary sources as James's fiction, essays, autobiography, correspondence, and notebooks, as well as such secondary sources as commentaries on James and his environment. In addition, I explored a variety of such interdisciplinary resources as psychological, sociological, and cultural studies on the place of family and children in current society, as well as government, journal, and newspaper reports.; Findings. The fiction of American novelist Henry James occupies a central position in the canon of English literature. During his lifetime, the structured traditions that had molded society in both England and the United States were attenuated, gradually replaced by rampant acquisitive narcissism. James became increasingly distressed by this cultural shift and its effect on children and childhood. Children figured more prominently in James's fiction as the age of Victoria waned, and James's pessimism became such that a theme referred to as the “death of childhood” came to dominate his inquiry into childhood vulnerability and its sequellae.; Conclusions. The research results support the hypothesis that the death of childhood was indeed a dominant theme in Henry James's fiction; that the eccentricities of his childhood had an intense, adverse effect subsequently expressed in his work; and that James's prescience of childhood's future is highly accurate. Inasmuch as this component of the great author's work has been neglected, this study offers a new perspective of the fiction and the novelist that may call into question other aspects of his work. |
