This book examines the relationship between the writings of Henry James and the historical formation of mass culture. Throughout his career, James was concerned with such characteristically modern cultural forms as advertising, biography and the New Journalism, forms which together constituted the ‘devouring publicity’ of modern life. Richard Salmon’s study situates James’s fiction and criticism within the context of the contemporary debates surrounding these rival discursive practices. He explores both the nature of James’s contribution to the critique of mass culture and the extent of his immersion within it. James’s persistent and ambivalent negotiation of the boundaries between private and public experience ranged from a defence of the artist’s right to privacy, to his own counter-practice of publicity.
Contents
List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Transformations of the public sphere in The Bostonians; 2. What the public wants: criticism, theatre and the 'masses'; 3. 'The insurmountable desire to know': privacy, biography and 'The Aspern Papers'; 4. The power of the press: from scandal to hunger; 5. The secret of the spectacle: advertising The Ambassadors; Postscript; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
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