Description
Book SynopsisAn analysis of the representation of women and gender in the short fiction of Henry James. Donatello Izzo shows how these short stories actually question and investigate the cultural and ideological practices producing women, both in literature and in society.
Trade Review"In this thoughtful and incisive analysis, Donatella Izzo explores and elucidates James’s treatment of the feminine and his dramatization of the attitudes and views toward women in his day. . . . Reading
Portraying the Lady was rather like the experience of traveling by rail to a destination with which one is familiar, but by a route that was totally new and remarkably insightful. Izzo’s itinerary was extremely interesting and significant, and example of how a journey of intellectual adventure can illuminate and inspire even though the point of arrival at journey’s end is already known."—Richard P. Gage,
Studies in the Novel"Donatella Izzo’s multi-layered, methodologically complex approach to Henry James’s short stories makes a provocative and satisfying study. . . . Izzo’s wide ranging, eclectic use of critics and theorists, combined with her own prodigious knowledge of and attention to James’s fiction, produces a wealth of insight and prodigality of spirited readings. Even Jamesians not concerned with the short fiction under scrutiny here will find Izzo’s book of interest."
Table of ContentsContents: Acknowledgments Introduction: The Manifold Arts of Re-vision Part 1. The Gaze: In the Museum of Women Confrontations 1. Women, Portraits, and Painters: "The Madonna of the Future" and "The Sweetheart of M. Briseux" 2. Women, Statues, and Lovers: "The Last of the Valerii" and "Adina" Substitutions 3. Woman as Object: "Rose-Agathe" 4. Woman as Image: "Glasses" Epilogue 1. Woman as Museum: "Maud-Evelyn" Epilogue 2. The Memoirs of an Objectified Woman: "Julia Bride" Part 2. The Voice: Discourses of Silence The Regime of Confession 5. Of Shame and Horror: "A London Life" and the Theatricals of Femininity 6. Dying to Speak: "The Visits" The Regime of Secrecy 7. Gender Trouble: "Georgina's Reasons" 8. The Word Not to Say It: "The Story in It" Epilogue 3. The Silence of the Sphinx: "The Beast in the Jungle" The End of the Story, or Telling a Different Story: "Mora Montravers" Notes Index
