JOURNAL ARTICLE

Contingency, Opacity, Belief: Ethics in The Wings of the Dove.

  • Published In: Henry James Review, 2023, v. 44, n. 2. P. 133 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Wiltshire-Gordon, Maisie 3 of 3

Abstract

The Wings of the Dove brings out a fierce desire to know —a desire the text often refuses to satisfy. I argue that this denial of knowledge acts ethically: drawing on unexpected common ground between Davidson and Levinas, I see knowledge-formation as fitting new information into existing schema. Wings marks the inadequacy of those schema, instead proposing a particularized, contingent encounter with characters who escape our grasp. Crucially, this is not an ethics grounded only in denial: even as James forecloses access to characters' consciousness, his stylistic choices attest to their inner lives as unavailable yet not empty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Henry James Review. 2023/04, Vol. 44, Issue 2, p133
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:0273-0340
  • DOI:10.1353/hjr.2023.0007
  • Accession Number:163524340
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Henry James Review is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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