Representing the economy and the economies of representation : readings in the fiction and criticism of Henry James

This thesis is structured around exchanges between contemporary \ncritical theory and the fiction, criticism and context of Henry \nJames. In Chapter 1 I discuss readings of James and theories of \nreading as an active process. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a theoretical \ncontext for my work. Chapter 4 gives the background to James's use \nof "economy" as a critical term, discussed in Chapter 5. Chapters \n6 and 7 introduce ideas of literary production and the relations of \nliterary production, the changing nature of criticism and the market. \nChapters 8 through to 12 focus on specific areas of James's work: \nthe question of sexuality; journalism, the public and the private; \ntravel, reading, and Daisy Miller; In the Cage, thrift, and utopia; \nearly 20th century America. \nCertain dominant readings of James are challenged by a historical \nand theoretical framework that relates James to his economic \ncontext through locating him in the material and textual relations \nof literary production; through concepts central to his work and to \nMarxist criticism, absence and symptomatic reading; through structures \nof displacement whereby the economic resurfaces as a part of James's \ncritical vocabulary; through questions of sexual difference and \nreading. My research demonstrates that James's writing is especially \nrelevant to current critical debates; and through staging their \nmeeting this thesis provides insights into both of these areas.