This thesis is an examination of Henry James and James McNeill Whistler as
cultural analysts of modernity. Using the theoretical work of Peter Burger, Jurgen
Habermas and Theodor Adorno as a frame, I analyse James's and Whistler's theoretical
and artistic responses to modernity and the problematic status of autonomous art and the
modernist artist in late nineteenth century industrial capitalism. In so doing, I place both
figures in their social and historical context and show how their work not only reflects but
itself participates in the complex social and cultural transformations of late nineteenth
century society.
While Henry James has continued to attract critical attention from many quarters,
those who have studied him in the larger context of nineteenth-century avant-garde culture
are still relatively few. Of those contextual studies, none has examined James's career and
work in the light of parallel developments in avant-garde visual art during this important
and complex period. James McNeill Whistler, like Henry James an American expatriate
working in late nineteenth century London, has been the subject of many studies
describing his formal achievement; however, he has not yet attracted the attention of
critics interested in theories of modernist representation, gender and sexuality. Because
modernisation was a phenomenon which had an impact on all aspects of late nineteenth
century culture, as both James and Whistler themselves acknowledge, my interdisciplinary,
contextualist approach to cultural production can illuminate aspects of cultural theory and
practice which might remain hidden in analyses contained within disciplinary boundaries.
The present thesis is not primarily a work of art-historical scholarship nor is it an in-depth
textual analysis of the Jamesian canon; it is an analysis of the ways in which two
individuals deal with the conditions of their artistic practice. My thesis is original in its
bringing together of two important figures - a writer and a visual artist - whose theory and
practice reveals the complexity of early modern art's dialectical relationship with
modernity. In so doing, I offer a critical reevaluation of the work of Henry James and
James McNeill Whistler in light of its engagement with the discourses of modernity and
modernism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6754 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Maclean, Lisa Anne |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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