Jamesian Space (American Literature Association)
In the aftermath of the spatial turn in literary studies, we look for fresh approaches to Jamesian spaces, material and metaphorical, real and imaginary. James’s texts have explicit spatial dimensions. Whether as settings aesthetically conceived or as sites of cultural, social, and political signification, spaces in James constitute means of thematic as well as formal exploration and even experimentation. From the Roman Colosseum to the “house of fiction” and from the “chamber of consciousness” to the “jolly corner” and the “amazing hotel-world,” James’s literary geography emphatically asserts the dynamic relations between space, subjectivity, and text.