Henry James – Modern Theoretician of Narration

Abstract

Henry James, properly named world writer, was one of the first modern novelists, with an exigent writing conscience. The American writer subverted the prejudgement of the omniscient author in favour of the narration which is centred on the characters’ point of view, thus modernising the novel before V. Woolf, Huxley, Thomas Mann, or in our case Camil Petrescu and G. Călinescu. Some bio-bibliographical information familiarises the reader with the life and work of this writer. The larger part of the article is dedicated to a case study of the novel with the metaphorical title: The Figure in the Carpet, where Henry James tries to illustrate in an artistic manner his conception regarding the profundity and ineffability of the literary creation. The conclusion which the author reaches, alternating the familiar plan of the relationship between a married couple with the esthetical plan, is that the relationship between writer and his work represents an act of fully intimacy, just like a ceremony that takes place in the wedding night

Keywords

• narration
• point of view
• denotation
• connotation
• meaning
• significance