On the modern dialectics of the self in Washington Square and the foundation of the Jamesian existential poetics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148589939

Keywords:

Insubstantiality, Existence, Fulfilment

Abstract

This paper has a triple aim: firstly, to reevaluate the work mentioned in the title, which many years after its publication James himself considered beneath his artistic standards (in my eyes, wrongly); secondly, to set out how the modern conception of the self (that according to me is the philosophical base of James’s conception of literature) is emotionally, morally and socioculturally concretized; thirdly, to study how the characterological variants postulated by the foregoing interplay in the work.

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Author Biography

Victor Gerardo Rivas Lopez, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

Víctor Gerardo Rivas López é doutor em Filosofia pela Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1998). Professor-investigador titular na Faculdade de Filosofia e Letras da Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, é autor de diversos livros e artigos e integrante do conselho acadêmico e editorial da Colección La Fuente, revista especializada em estética e arte.

References

JAMES, Henry. Washington Square. London: Penguin, 1984.

MACINTYRE, Alasdair. A Short History of Ethics. Notre Dame: UNDP, 1998.

MEISSNER, Collin. Henry James and the language of experience. Cambridge: CUP, 1999.

SCRUTON, Roger. Modern Philosophy. An Introduction and Survey. London: Penguin, 1994.

SEARS, John F. Introduction to The American Scene. London: Penguin, 1994.

ZACHARIAS, Greg W. Henry James’s Style in Washington Square. Studies in American Fiction, n. 2, v. 18, pp. 207-224, 1990.

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Published

2025-10-06

How to Cite

Rivas Lopez, V. G. (2025). On the modern dialectics of the self in Washington Square and the foundation of the Jamesian existential poetics. Letras, 71, e89939. https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148589939

Issue

Vol. 71 (2025): Dossiê sobre Henry James

Section

Articles

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