3. The Jolly Corner - Henry James

DICOTOMY

The problem of the American Dream (l'attaccamento al progresso monetario e la gente che perde l'anima

per seguirlo) is expressed by the Dicotomy between Art on one side and The Idea of Money of American on

the other. Dicotomy

The Sublime (The Monster) vs The Beautiful (The Beauty)

• •

Chaos Order

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Death Life

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Gothic Rationality/Reason/Enlightment/Realism

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Soprannaturale Soprannaturale Spiegato

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Divine Genealogy Natural Genealogy (c'è Darwin)

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Castle City

− European have been much more obsessed with Art, they create Art, they painted and sculptured.

− American doesn't have a past but it has money. They can buy Europeans' Art and bring it to the US.

Henry James write also a short novel called "Daisy Miller": it's really interesting, a story of a young,

beautiful and wealthy american girl who belongs to a good family. She goes to Rome, inside the Colosseum

and she feels a sort of sick atmosphere, she brethes it, which produce illness which brings her to death (gli

Americani non sono abituati a fare la storia, così, quando questa ragazza è nel colosseo respira l'aria e muore

– Aria della Storia/Passato).

The JC is something like this but turned around.

The Point of view of the Narrator is External.

Every section i the story has a different style: Spencer changes his point of view and his idea about NY and

about his family, he changes also his language because he describes things in a different way.

Racconto diviso in 3 parti:

− Presentazione di Spencer e Alice.

− Tentativo di Spencer di trovare il suo fantasma.

− Avvicinamento tra Alice e Spencer che sembra sfociare in una storia d'amore

Introduction

Pag. 9

When Henry James goes back to the US, he goes back because he was a very famous writer and some

important american publishers asked him to came back to write a book about how America has changed (this

book is mentioned on page 9: "The American Scene" and he talks about the changes).

Anothere theme is when he talks about the "Return of the Native": Europeans conquest Americans but some

people lived there (indiani d'america) so Europeans went there and destroyed Native Americans.

Pag. 10

Tema del ritorno dall'esilio e tema del conflitto fra passato e presente (he's looking for the past but at the

same time he's looking the faillure of his life in NY).

Pag. 11

Il Fantasma non appartiene al regno dei morti ma a quello dei vivi, o meglio a quello di una vita non vissuta.

Pag. 12

Si accorge che è anche capace di fare affari, si chiede cosa ne avrebbe fatto di lui l'America se fosse rimasto

(distinction between Aesthethics and Economics).

His decision to go to Europe is not acceptted by his family: suo padre gli lancia una maledizione (c'è un

elemento di colpa poichè vive con i loro soldi in Europa, quindi torna per chiudere questa maledizione

dedicandosi a ciò che i suoi genitori volevano, ovvero occuparsi degli affari di famiglia).

SYMBOLISM

The protagonist of JC turns back in the US after 33 years, while James only 22 years (there is an

autobiographical element, but when writers write about themeselfes they change some elements in order to

not be recognized by the audience).

33 is the age of Christ, WHY?: He comes back and for him he's a sacrifical son*, because at the end of 33

years in Europe he has to go back and metaphorically he has to crucified and take care of family business,

which is something he didn't before (it's the price to pay after having done what he preferred/liked).

[* has to do also with the amputation in this case: the ghost has lost 2 fingers, it's a symbolic amputation –

James' father has lost one leg, which was amputated due to an accident].

In a book tha James wrote 2 years after JC, where he goes back to NY and there is nostalgia about the NY he

remembered before, when he was a child (all has been changed);

He also descovered that the house where he lived when he was a boy has been destroyed in order to build a

new building (una "struttura quadrata e impersonale che blocca nel momento giusto la visione del passato,

cosicchè l'effetto per me, arrivato a Washington place, fu quello di essere stato AMPUTATO di metà della

mia storia").

Buildings are a symbolical part/piece of his life, and have been amputated and also his father was (Story of

Symbolic Castration = his american home has been amputated + the ghost has 2 fingers amputated).

Castration/Amputation

− Amputation → the ghost has lost 2 fingers → james' father had lost one leg.

− Other book after the Jolly Corner → his american history has been amputated (having been

amputated of half my history)→ symbolic castration → feminization of the male.

− Character (losing his attributes)

− He faces the ghost, he faints, wakes up in the lap (grembo) of Alice. He's like a child with his

mother. It's like he falls in love with his mother (= Castration of the father).

All this elements (the different amputations) seems to point towards a fenomen called "Feminization of the

Male Charracter": they lose their main attributes, symbolic losing of the symbol of his being a man/male

(it happens first on his father).

Sense of Loss: It's also the sense of not being able to live full life as a men, they have the sensation of not

living fully their life as a male.

At the ending of the story, while he's sitting in the lap of Alice Stevenson he has a confirmation of that

because he made a confrontation with the ghost – She (Alice) is his mother, which has a lot to do with the

castration of his father figure – the Edipus Complex: it's a period when the male child falls in love with the

mother and keeps the father picture (symblical castration) up to the point the child will recognize the

symbolic order of reality. THIS point coincide with the moment of child begins to speak (language simbolize

reality).

Here we have a man who refuses his father and live his life, he goes to Europe and develops a sensibility

towards art, literature and so on – this sensibility is Femine because is not a male characteristic.

He goes back to NY and finds his history has been amputated because the house has been turned down. He

has no male figure which is reppresented by the house – It's rappresented into the story, JC, where Brydon

remember symbolically that James father has been amputated and mirror in the loss of 2 fingers of the ghost.

• There's a relationship between Brydon and Alice = relationship between a man and his mother.

American Scene

He talks about a "Piastra Commemorativa": the idea of commemoration of something in the past, something

that people can read, and he used to remember something taht happened in that place in the past that has no

sense in NY, where building were destroyed to build higher building (in James terms is the VOLGARITY of

the American mind, a mind which has no memories and nor capacity to preserve memories, not interested).

THIS is not only volgar, but also there is the idea of MONSTRUOSITY of the American mind: the fact that

they leave all incomplete, devoy of balance (it's all unbalanced). This is the concept of mostruosity, and this

is why the ghost missing 2 fingers: because it's the rappresentation of American Volgarity, which the ghost

try to hide (he cover his face).

MONSTRUOSITY

In a way Brydon doesn't really block history, the way James blocked history (in American Scene he said it's

amputated); for Brydon the family house is still there. James keep the house intact in the story (not in the

reality because his family house was destroyed).

Vulgarity (monstruosity) of the american mind → no memory . It doesn't want to remember. A writing on the

wall can't be there.

Brydon manages to go back and the family hose is still there not like James

• Other autobiographical element, which comes from the group of memories A Small Boy and other

Stories: in this books there is a passage where James recalled a dream he had when he was a boy in

Paris. James speaking about himself being in Paris (Gallerie d'Apollion); when he saw the Gallerie

he was just a boy: parla di questo sogno come del più spaventoso e ammirevole nel senso di

eccezionale incubo della sua vita. L'apice di questa esperienza era l'apice dell'inseguimento

attraverso una porta aperta di una figura che può descrivere solo debolmente e che fuggiva

terrorizzata (it's a dream where he's not followed by the ghost, he is not the victim because it's him

who's following the ghost. It ends with the ghost that run away for his life – finisce con James che

dice "si mise a correre per salvarsi la vita").

Brydon looks back at his life as a linear life (he didi what he wanted to do). He didn't follow the family, so he

wants to remind his life from the moment he almost recover the opportunity that he has lost and takes back

all the potential of his life which he decided not to give away.

POTENTIAL = BAT (bocciolo, nella storia) which he takes away from NY, and the bat dies (now he wants

to recover that).

He does it by giving a face to the ghost, which has to do with what he has become. But when he looks at the

ghost's face, he cover it with his hands and when he tooks them out it becomes a literal vision – in this

moment James makes Brydon faint because he doesn't allow the reader to have the direct exprience of what

Brydon sees.

When Brydon faint he wakes up in the lap of Alice, she tells him she had a dream when she was in the house

and she dreamt his ghost with the 2 fingers missing (detail of the ghost which shows him that they are in

sintony). When Alice arrives, she doesn't give no more details to understand what has happened, she only

gives another metaphorical figure.

According to James, Literature has to be symbolic/metaphoric. Literature does not have direct access to

reality, and James takes this idea all the way down because the protagonist does not show anything literal –

he gives description with metaphorical way (description of real thing).

• Strange Figure* (lo strano personaggio) – James plays with words (figures).

- Figure of speech: strana figura retorica e quindi viene descritta in termini retorici e realistici.

- Conti: significato meno comune – personaggio che va a fare i conti con la storia.

- Individual – numbers (money – life of his family).

[*Figure = many meanings in the story]

It's a story of an individual who is told through figures of speech, because he never allowed to have direct

visions, and also a story of NY, of money. JAMES vs POE

James in the first part of his career talked enthusiastic about Poe, in a good way but towards his life he

changed idea, at the end he