Sexuality, Eroticism, and Henry James

Abstract

As a prominent citizen, Henry James no doubt pondered the question of how to derive sexual pleasure and yet maintain respectability in a world where desire often led to despair. In his life and art, Henry James appears to have quietly sought the sexual spaces that other people overlooked. Key for James was individual satisfaction. Then, what kinds of perversions can be found in Henry James? To answer this question, this paper attempts to disclose the realm of James's sexuality and eroticism embedded in his work as well as in his life. Sexuality is a way of seeing. The sexual difference known to marginal males alters their world view. The sexually marginal male not only sees differently, but also sees more. Because of his double existence, one public and one private, he sees from both common and private perspectives. Sexually marginal people find meaningful what the majority finds meaningless. The marginal male in Henry James's fiction looks outward and sees what he would like to be, and then turns inward and interprets the lack the difference he finds there.In his fiction, James created a peculiar world of sexual surprise which was much later defined by Foucault as "peripheral sexualities." When terms like "invert" and "homosexual," "voyeur" and "fetish" enters academic discourse, James is to be mentioned repeatedly with regard to his works as well as his life. The possibility of alternative and compensatory pleasures became a trademark in James's life, and he would aim for the maximum of eroticism just short of physicality. In short, James's sexuality was of a different and in some ways surprising nature, and his road would necessarily be that of substitutions and compensations.