Jamesian Beginnings
updated:
Monday, November 4, 2024 - 5:07am
Henry James Society
deadline for submissions:
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
The appeal of teleological thinking often shapes our readings of James, whether of individual works or of his career as a whole. But rather than let a sense of the ending determine our interpretation of what came before, how might James look different if we focused instead on beginnings? How does he typically begin a tale or novel—and how, if at all, do his strategies differ from those of other short story writers or novelists? How, where, or when doesn’t he begin? How is beginning thematized within the fictions, as in Isabel Archer’s practice of “beginning afresh a great many times” or Madame Merle’s wish that she could “begin again”? How did James himself begin as a writer?