What Maisie Knew: The Language of Silence as Knowledge and Sexuality
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Henry James employs silence as part of his narrative strategy in many of his tales. Such a predilection for reticence, the withholding power of not telling the whole story, adds to the complexity of James’s literature. This paper aims to examine the ways in which James develops the meanings of his tale and the sense of knowledge that grows in Maisie, by exploring the silence symptomatically manifested in the narrative of the juvenile protagonist in What Maisie Knew. Maisie’s reticence signifies a strategic withdrawal from the material world into the depths of her interior. James is preoccupied with providing a detailed record of Maisie’s development, with great appeals for the language of silence. Maisie’s interior is explored in terms of knowledge and sexuality growing through her encounters with the corrupt adult world. The sexual, ethical, and social challenges the process poses to Maisie constitute a huge part of Maisie’s education and the major concern of the author. Maisie’s assertion for knowledge at the end remains problematic in determining its epistemological entity. It does not share the moralism of her governess nor the gravity of the author’s preface. It appears as Maisie’s way of summing up her courage to face the world again, despite the failings of the adult.
Abstract
Henry James employs silence as part of his narrative strategy in many of his tales. Such a predilection for reticence, the withholding power of not telling the whole story, adds to the complexity of James’s literature. This paper aims to examine the ways in which James develops the meanings of his tale and the sense of knowledge that grows in Maisie, by exploring the silence symptomatically manifested in the narrative of the juvenile protagonist in What Maisie Knew. Maisie’s reticence signifies a strategic withdrawal from the material world into the depths of her interior. James is preoccupied with providing a detailed record of Maisie’s development, with great appeals for the language of silence. Maisie’s interior is explored in terms of knowledge and sexuality growing through her encounters with the corrupt adult world. The sexual, ethical, and social challenges the process poses to Maisie constitute a huge part of Maisie’s education and the major concern of the author. Maisie’s assertion for knowledge at the end remains problematic in determining its epistemological entity. It does not share the moralism of her governess nor the gravity of the author’s preface. It appears as Maisie’s way of summing up her courage to face the world again, despite the failings of the adult.
참고문헌 (14)
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