A Brief Introduction to Foreign Literary Aesthetics: James the Character

A Brief Introduction to Foreign Literary Aesthetics: James the Character

Henry James (1843-1916) is an American novelist, literary theorist and one of the most influential figures in American literary history. Born in a well-educated family and advocating ancient European civilization, he traveled between Europe and America since childhood, settled in London from 1876, became a British citizen from 19 15, and 19 16 was awarded the highest civilian medal by Britain. James is diligent in writing and has many works. His main works are novels, among which the famous ones are American, Tessie Miller, Portrait of a Lady, Harvest in Boston, etc. His novels are mostly set in European aristocratic and bourgeois society, pursuing form and paying attention to psychological description. Western critics sometimes call James a psychoanalytic novelist, but he is not intoxicated with the psychology and subconscious of the characters. He is interested in and expresses the thoughts, feelings and sentiments of the characters. His creation strongly promoted the formation of realism in American literature. Of course, his novels include various artistic issues, as well as formalism and aestheticism.

James also wrote many insightful and valuable literary criticism articles, including articles on Hawthorne such as French Poets and Novelists and The Art of Fiction, and he wrote 18 prefaces for his collection of novels, which were highly praised by western critics.

James is a "literary master" of "psychological realism", so we should correctly understand his literary aesthetics. First of all, he had close contacts with Turgenev, Mo Bosang and other writers, and was deeply influenced by pragmatism. Therefore, he regards sensory experience as the whole content of life and thinks that creation is to reproduce life. Novelists should have as complete feelings, impressions and experiences about life as possible, and should "truly" reproduce this impersonal life experience, instead of thinking too much about pessimistic or optimistic moral conclusions, otherwise, their novels will lose their "original life color". Only by describing psychological experience and exerting psychological function as the main theme can writers succeed in their creation. Secondly, James denies everything else with skill, structure and style, and thinks that the content of the work lies in form. Good form can overcome the disadvantages brought by one-sided pursuit of content, so we should carefully explore the art form that best reflects our soul. This form is an infallible "castle" and "holy land" that attracts works of art. James also provided a way to explore good art forms. One of them is the "angle theory" which has a great influence on European and American literary creation and criticism. He believes that the key to novel skills is to grasp the main character and describe people and things in a specific environment from the perspective of this main character. His creation always starts with the visual image of one person or several people, and people should be regarded as having a complicated relationship with various conditions and complicated living conditions. His "method of describing scenes", even if the stories unfold one by one like a drama, organizes the most useful and favorable scenes for the characters through imagination, creation and selection, which opens up an important road for modern novels; He also believes that the author is not in a hurry to get close to the theme, so that his views are hidden. It is very important to explore the theme in an indirect way for forming a good art form. Thirdly, James believes that readers' feelings come from the feelings of the characters in the works, and the feelings of the characters in the works come from the author's ability to feel-this is the key point of creation and appreciation. The author's feelings refer to his "pleading" and "appeal" of being aware of everything around him, and he has a keen consciousness. The stronger this consciousness is, the more faithful he is in his works, the deeper the consciousness and feelings of the characters themselves in his works, and the more beneficial it will be to readers.

James's novel theory is of positive significance to the understanding and research of the thinking process in images in artistic creation, but his over-emphasis on skills also leads to the suspicion of formalism that ignores social content. James was also influenced by Emerson's transcendentalism, and thought that the symbol of "virtue" given by God and the "goodness" revealed by God were the highest realm of "beauty". This is undoubtedly a response to Thomas Aquinas' medieval theological aesthetics.