Henry James’s Enigmas: Turning the Screw of Eternity? (Nouvelle poétique comparatiste / New Comparative Poetics)

Discovering Lamb House in 1896, Henry James fell under the spell of the words of Biblical «Wisdom» written on the tower clock of Rye parochial church: «For our time is a very shadow that passeth away». From the young bachelor’s «angry vow» to «live for himself and turn the key on his heart» in Watch and Ward (1871) to the decisive The Turn of the Screw (1898) and to the final «turning the tables» on «an awful agent» of the Apollo Gallery in the nightmare of A Small Boy and Others (1913), this refined «ambassador» of American letters, sharing some of the idiosyncrasies of Sacher Masoch and Gustave Flaubert – Jean-Paul Sartre’s «Idiot of the family» – waged a fantastic fight against neurosis for the mastery of his craft. This study explores the «gems» that spangle the «carpet» of his prose. The latter hints at a secret christology and shines with the desire to fight differently the modern Romains de la decadence depicted in Thomas Couture’s famous painting. The myth of the Twins inspired by James’s relationship with his brother William eventually led him to feel like «the heir of all the ages». Burning some letters to protect his privacy, the expatriate writer (1843–1916) constructed his œuvre to share the sky of the literary world Pleiades, and found eternal rest under the vaults of Westminster Abbey. Willem Visser't Hooft (1900-1985), Dutch pastor and theologian, was one of the most significant personalities in the Protestant Ecumenical movement. Deeply influenced by Karl Barth, and filled with a strong Ecumenical spirit, he was closely involved in the founding of the World Council of Churches, of which he was elected General Secretary. During the Second World War, many Protestants became convinced of the need for an international political system which, beside uniting the nations and peoples of Europe, would guarantee them fundamental freedoms and mutual respect for their historical, cultural and confessional traditions. The directors of the WCC were strongly committed to federalism, partly because of the political traditions of the states from which their member churches originated (Switzerland ; Great Britain and its Commonwealth ; the United States), and partly because of their conviction that a simple confederation of states, based on the model of the League of Nations, would be completely incapable of containing national ambitions. In spring 1944, Visser #x92 ; t Hooft welcomed into his Geneva home the representatives of the European Resistance, who, under the leadership of Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, signed the International Federalist Declaration of the Resistance Movements. These historic transnational encounters, aimed not only at coordinating military action or seeking diplomatic contacts but at exploring ways to "build" peace and re-establish the future of the Continent on new foundations, marked a profound break with the past Content: Cover Table of Contents Introduction: Towards Westminster Abbey: the Twin's Mythical Eternity Chapter I: Deciphering Europe: Landscape and the Art of Fiction Chapter II: Walter Pater, Henry James and Freud Probing Leonardo da Vinci's Family Novel Chapter III: Passionate Attraction: From Faraday, Swedenborg to Théophile Gautier, Charles Fourier and Wilde Chapter IV: Henry James and Sacher-Masoch: From the Love of Statues to the Fear of Ghosts Chapter V: Investigating the Victorian Nursery: James's Self-Analysis of the "Frightened Cry-Baby" in the Hands of Dr Skinner ... Chapter VI: The Solar Myth: Twin Structures: Impulses of Death and CivilizationChapter VII: Anamorphosis and the Secret of Mr Tishbein Seen "from the Jolly Corner" Chapter VIII: Towards the Grotesque and Beyond: Caricature from Francis Grose to Dracula Chapter IX: A Love of James? Conclusion: "The Heir of all the Ages" in the Pleiades of the Cultural West: a Symbolic Revolution Bibliography. Inscribed at the threshold of several cultures, James's literary work continues to be provocative today, as much by the suggestion of a hidden design, concealed from the reader's view, as by the successive interpretations to which it has given rise. This study explores the "gems" that spangle the "carpet" of his prose.