Henry James is an American novelist, literary critic, playwright and essayist. His masterpieces include the novel An American, Portrait of a Lady, Wings of a Dove, The Messenger and The Golden Bowl. His creation had a great influence on the rising modernism and postmodernism literature in the 20th century.
Henry James was born in a rich family in new york. When he was young, he traveled all over Europe and then engaged in literary creation. James became a British citizen in 19 15. He died in London the following year.
Chinese name: Henry James
Henry James.
Nationality: USA (British nationality 19 15)
Place of birth: new york, USA
Date of birth: 1843 April 15.
Date of death:1965438+February 28th, 2006.
Occupation: novelist
Masterpieces: An American, Portrait of a Lady, Pigeon Wing, Envoy, Golden Bowl.
Character experience
1843 April 15, born in a wealthy family in new york. Father is a philosopher and theologian. Brother william james is the first American psychologist, who initiated the theory of stream of consciousness. Henry spent his childhood in Manhattan, new york. At the age of twelve, he went to Europe with his parents and attended high schools in Geneva and Bonn.
From 1862 to 1864, when he was studying law at Harvard University, he met howells and they became lifelong friends. He began to publish novels and reviews in Atlantic Monthly, Nation and North American Review.
1864, the first short story "The Tragedy of Elo" came out, and there was no social response. From 65438 to 0869, he went to European countries alone and decided to stay in Britain for the time being. He published some short stories one after another, including a collection of short stories Sentimental Travel (1875), An Experience of Crossing the Atlantic (1875) and a collection of travel stories Roderick Hudson (1875).
From 1875 to 1876, he stayed in Paris for nearly two years and got to know French writers Flaubert, Mo Bosang, Zola, Russian novelist Turgenev and American poet Stevens. He wrote many literary newsletters for the new york Forum.
1At the end of 876, he visited London again. He thought it was his spiritual hometown and stayed there. The following year, he published the novel The American.
From 65438 to 0879, daisy miller was published, which was well received and established an international reputation. In the same year, he published the novel The European, which further expanded his influence.
188 1 year, The Portrait of a Lady met with readers, which promoted his status as a novelist.
1886 The Bostonians and Princess Casa Mashima were published. 1890, published by Miserable Muse.
At the beginning of the 20th century, James continued to devote himself to novel creation. The more detailed he writes, the deeper his psychological description of the characters will be. His creation reached its peak, and he published three novels successively: Wings of Dove (1902), Envoy (1903) and Golden Bowl (1904).
James is very concerned about the development of British and American literary circles. In the prefaces of several novels, he expressed his views on some literary creation problems. Later, these "prefaces" were compiled into The Art of Fiction and published in 1884, which had far-reaching influence. In his later years, he wrote three autobiographies: Childhood and Others (19 13), Being a Son and Brother (19 14) and Middle Age (19 17).
19 1 1 year, Harvard University awarded James an honorary doctorate in literature in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of novel creation. The following year, Oxford University awarded him the honorary title of Doctor of Literature. 19 15 He was strongly dissatisfied with the neutrality adopted by the American government in World War I, and angrily announced his naturalization as a British citizen.
19 12 at the beginning of the year, the British government awarded him the highest civilian medal; On February 28th of the same year, James died in London.
Personal life
Henry James was born in a scholarly family near Washington Square in the United States. Brother william james is an American philosopher and psychologist. His father, Henry, was a philosophical writer, and his family often frequented some American cultural celebrities, such as philosopher Emerson and essayist Thoreau. This made young James deeply immersed in literature, art and philosophy from an early age. James's father is an admirer of international culture and regards understanding European culture as an important part of his children's education. So James began a roaming tour in Europe from an early age, covering Geneva, London, Paris, Rome and other places. For James, the European continent with a long history and profound cultural heritage is like an ideal cultural form of human beings, while the short-lived American culture is thin and naive. James is constantly exploring in two completely different cultural conflicts.
Henry James is unmarried for life and is good friends with American woman writer Edith Wharton.
Main work
Creative characteristics
Realistic empiricism
Henry James believes that "truth" is the basic principle of realism. He explained: "The main reason why a work can be called a novel is its authenticity, that is, a true description of an event. No matter what disputes about morality and taste, its authenticity is the basic standard to measure the quality of works. " James also believes that "giving people a sense of reality is the supreme quality of a novel". Nevertheless, James pays more attention to the application of experience in novel creation. He believes that experience is a net made of the best silk hanging in an ideal world to capture everything in the air. Speaking of experience, James once used a real example to illustrate his understanding of experience: a talented British woman writer once portrayed a young French Jesuit very well, but her experience in shaping this character was only based on a brief glance-once she passed by a priest's house in Paris and happened to see several young Jesuits sitting around the dining table, which made her impressed and shaped a typical character. Because she knows the characteristics of young people in the French society where she lives and the teachings of Jesus, she can combine these concepts and create concrete characters in real life. More importantly, she has the unique ability to see through the whole leopard at a glance. James thinks that this brief glimpse is enough to constitute the author's experience. That glance produced a picture, which lasted only a moment, but was only experienced for a moment. This kind of real life experience left a deep impression on the writer, and this kind of experience can be a much bigger source of creation compared with accidental factors such as creative environment or social status. "In James's exposition," a glimpse of the whole leopard "is quite meaningful. The former shows the premise of novel art, while the latter reflects his view on the essence of novel. James has always believed that "novels are personal impressions of life" and "art is a choice, but it is a choice with typicality and comprehensiveness as its main goal". In addition, James uses an artistic analogy to describe the authenticity of the novel, that is, "just as a painting is reality, a novel is history". James believes that the imaginative transformation from novel to reality takes place in the artist's mind. He defined the novel as "personal direct impression of life", which highlighted the author's experience and subjectivity in novel creation. In this definition, "individual" and "impression" emphasize subjectivity, while "directness" and "liveliness" emphasize the authenticity of the novel, that is, the correspondence between the novel and life.
James believes that the essence of novels is the choice and reappearance of impressions representing sexual life. Life is the source of novel creation, and experience constitutes the material of the novel, which is James' realism. James believes that novelists should have the imagination of "seeing the whole leopard from a glimpse", which is the ability to "guess what they have not seen from what they have seen, reveal the inner meaning of things, and judge the whole thing according to a certain model. This ability is the condition of fully feeling life, and with this condition, you can fully understand life. " These theories of James represent his view of "authenticity". He believes that the reason for the existence of novels lies in its loyalty, which has both typical truth and profound truth. James grew up in the United States, and has been wandering in Europe since he became an adult, except occasionally visiting relatives in the United States. His personal experience in Europe left a deep impression on him, left him with rich life experiences and provided material for his literary creation. At the same time, it also provided him with a unique perspective to observe European and American society and Europeans, and laid the foundation for his creation of international novels reflecting social reality. It is this international stage that provides him with a platform to show the personalities of European and American social figures, which he can see at a glance. James: He has lived in Europe and America. He knows the European and American society and is familiar with the differences between Europeans and Americans. He has always wanted to compare European and American civilizations, and to reproduce the reality of European and American society with concrete images in his novel world-that is to say, the conflict between European civilization and American civilization is a very touching and attractive reality. Under the control of this realistic thought, James created his direct impression of life into his novels after he was deeply impressed by European and American society, which also endowed many of his early works with strong realism. The characters in his novels usually come from the United States, and then they encounter conflicts between their American cultural background and European cultural concepts in the European environment. From American daisy miller to Portrait of a Lady. The stories in James' novels often take place in real places, and the characters are objective descriptions of representative real people in real life. James performed a beautiful story, describing all kinds of characters and lives. James is an advocate, practitioner and reformer of realism.
James profoundly reveals the American spirit and American life in his works. He has always believed that literary artists can't just hold a mirror and shine on the surface of social life at a certain time and place. On the contrary, writers should use language art to explore the deepest things in human psychological and moral nature. He believes that novels are not only an art form to provide entertainment for readers, but the best novels should enlighten readers' lives by showing the very complicated process of social life.
Personality assessment
In the eyes of Europeans, James was a "literary master" who crossed national boundaries, but his artistic style ran counter to Mark Twain's literary tradition, so few American readers loved him when he was alive. Mark Twain likes folk colloquialism, while James likes to use obscure adverbs and long sentences to construct metaphors. The dialogue is too elaborate and ambiguous. Therefore, he and his works were once criticized, and James, as a novelist and critic, was not fully valued until the Second Renaissance in the United States before the two world wars. He is recognized as an outstanding American psychological realist novelist. -Yang
He is not very successful in writing plays, but he is good at writing novels. He is good at creating interesting plots and worrying readers, but he can also be read endlessly. His rich works are written for people to ponder and analyze carefully. -Argentine writer Borges
Personality influence
Henry James pioneered psychoanalytic novels. In his works, the inner world of ordinary people appears like a maze. 、
At the beginning of the 20th century, James published three novels one after another: Wings of Pigeons, Envoys and Golden Bowl, which made his creation reach its peak. Among the 20th century 100 English novels selected by Random House (1996), James is on the list with these three novels, and all of them are among the best. Most of these novels praise the noble character of the American bourgeoisie. James is regarded as the pioneer of modern western psychoanalytic novels.