詹姆斯的心理现实主义

亨利·詹姆斯的心理现实主义小说及

其影响

亨利·詹姆斯(1843—1916),是一位杰出的小说家、文体学家和文艺评论家。他出生在美国纽约市,早年大部分时光在欧洲度过,后来定居英国,最终加入英国国籍。在用英语写作的作家中,他第一个把小说当作一门艺术进行长期探索和大量试验,取得了丰硕的成果。在他半个多世纪的写作生涯中,共写了22部长篇小说、112篇短篇小说、7部剧本、10多本文艺评论书籍以及大量的往来书信。因为他一生多半是在英国度过的,他选择描写的都是些有教养的上流社会的人物,其

生活方式非普通人所熟悉,而且他擅长刻画人物变化无常、难以捉摸的心理活动,再者,他的写作风格晦涩难懂,这些跟马克·吐温开创的具有美国民族特色的传统相背,所以詹姆斯在其有生之年作品不大受人青睐,他作为小说家和文论家的内在价值和广泛影响直到二十世纪30年代才得到世人的认可。詹姆斯常年旅居欧洲,积累了深厚的文化底蕴,他在英美文学史上的地位是无与伦比的。与同时代作家相比他的影响较为平缓、不够迅猛,但却深入持久。T. S.艾略特十分推崇詹姆斯,称他为“他那一代人中最聪明的人”1。美国杰出的评论家菲立普·拉

赫夫称他为“美国最伟大的小说家”2,叶佛·温特斯则宣称他是“英语语言中最伟大的小说家”3。英国著名的批评家F. R.利维斯问道:“在英语世界里,我们还能找到谁在小说艺术成就上能够超过他?”4可见,詹姆斯被公认为是他那个时代为数不多的最伟大的小说家之一。 十九世纪末到二十世纪初,詹姆斯生活和从事创作的几十年,正是欧美主要资本主义国家进入帝国主义的时期。随着资本主义的迅猛发展,资本主义所固有的各种矛盾更加尖锐。在这个阶段,曾于十九世纪中、后期繁荣兴旺起来的现实主义文学已日益受到人们的冷落。一些作家

不满足于现实主义所取得的成就,他们试图另辟蹊径,力求创新,对文学作品的表现题材和创作技巧进行试验,以寻找出一条新的创作方法来表现新时代的复杂社会矛盾和深刻精神危机,现代主义就是在这样的历史背景下崛起的。现代主义在十九末从欧洲大陆传入英国,首先反映在王尔德等唯美主义与颓废派的作品以及爱尔兰诗人叶芝早期的诗歌里。在英语小说领域里,詹姆斯是进行这方面试验的最早探索者之一。小说的写作方法发生了根本性的变革,即从传统模式转向新型模式。在这一新的历史时期,詹姆斯是个承上启下的关键人物。

“詹姆斯从小说中人们所熟悉的传统开始,然后将注意力转移到小说创作中迄今为止那些为人们所忽略的方面,而恰恰是这些方面使詹姆斯在很大程度上成为现代实验小说的先声。”1这些为人们所忽略的方面,便是对人物心理状态及其细微变化的探索与刻画。心理描写的方法对现代小说家来说已经不算是什么新鲜的事了,但是在十九世纪詹姆斯从事小说创作的那个时代却是小说技巧方面的一种创新。由于历史的局限性,人物的心理活动为人们所忽略,这种写作方法也难以被广泛地认同和接受。詹姆斯在作品中对人物的心理状态和

意识活动进行详尽的分析,他的创作手法被称为“心理现实主义”。他的作品在写作方法上表现出新旧交替的特色,他既继承了现实主义的传统,又强调对人物进行心理分析和描写,力图在表现技巧、手法上有所突破和发展。就在这个时期,西方心理学有了长足的进展,它不但加深了人类对自身内心世界的认识,而且也导致了文学创作从内容到形式的革新。奥地利心理学家弗洛伊德的心理分析理论对心理小说尤其是心理现实主义小说的发展起到了推波助澜的作用。人们开始意识到,在文学和心理学之间有着一些共同的东西,二者建立在共同

的基础之上:它们都涉及到人对主观精神世界的探索。小说家可以从心理学的研究中汲取营养来创作心理小说。受这种思潮的驱动,心理现实主义便应运而生。可见,心理现实主义的兴起既是小说自身演变的结果,又是心理学影响的产物,它跟现代心理学的发展紧密相关。心理现实主义是传统的现实主义向反传统的现代主义过渡时期出现的一种重要文学现象。 心理现实主义包括“心理”和“现实”两个方面,它们相互补充、相互依存,构成一个不可分割的有机整体。一方面,心理现实主义通过人物的心理反映现实,反映客观世界;另一方面,心理内

容的描写又与客观现实相结合,在创作中使客观的现实世界和主观的精神世界统一起来。因而,心理现实主义是叙事文学的一种创作方法,也是二十世纪的一个重要的文学思潮。它以现实主义为基础,通过心理描写与心理分析来揭示人物的内心世界,这是文学发展史上的一个创举。 詹姆斯首先是一位现实主义小说家。他坚持现实主义的创作观,并不单纯追求美的形式,而是在描写一种复杂真实的生活经历的过程中体现出文学创作形式之美。对他来说,小说的任务主要是反映生活。但他并不像威廉·霍威尔斯和自然主义者那样,他对商业、政治

和社会状况没有兴趣。他关心的是观察人的心灵而不记录他生活的那个时代。他的现实主义是一种特殊的心理现实主义。他的故事中很少有不同凡响的事件或者惊天动地的举动。其实,他小说中的人物不是在经历人生而是在观察人生。发生在他们身上的事情不是他们自身行为造成的。引起人们兴趣的只是他们对故事中的事件所做出的心理反映。他们看到了什么?他们是怎样理解的?人物的意识变化才是真正的故事。 詹氏家族对人的行为几乎有一种医生在临床观察上的好奇心,这使他哥哥威廉成为美国心理学的奠基人,而亨利·詹姆斯本

人也是第一位清楚地认识到小说的素材和心理学研究的内容有共同之处。他坚持认为,小说家的主要任务是准确地反映人物的内心变化。他指责几乎以往所有的小说家,他们通过详尽的评论把自己的解释贯注到作品之中。詹姆斯在自己的文学创作中,除偶尔作一些解释之外,尽量做到不在作品中出现,正如福楼拜要求作者的那样,作家要像“上帝在宇宙之中无处不在而又无处可见。”1 然而,在十九世纪末,大多数读者还没有足够的准备来接受这种新的创作方法,因而詹姆斯的作品在当时并不受欢迎。但到了二十世纪,在文学创作上“意识

流”手法已相当普遍,由于现代心理学逐步对人们产生影响和像詹姆斯这样敢于开拓创新的作家写出的作品的潜移默化作用,我们当今的读者才对人的心理活动产生了浓厚的兴趣。人们逐渐地了解到每个人头脑中的事件和外部世界的事件一样精彩纷呈、富于变化。这样,詹姆斯便更加稳固地确立了他小说家和批评家的地位,他是一位才华卓著的心理现实主义大师。 “意识流”手法广泛应用于现代主义的创作当中。“意识流”小说属于一种特殊的心理小说。“意识流”这个术语可以追溯到威廉·詹姆斯在《心理学原理》中对思想意识的精彩记

述。他用这个生动的比喻来描述人的意识流动和它的不断变化。詹姆斯的心理现实主义小说和作为现代主义发展顶峰的“意识流”小说在展现人物的内心矛盾冲突上是一致的,然而詹姆斯的小说和“意识流”小说又有所不同。尽管在表现题材上小说的重点同样是由外部事件转移到了内部精神世界,詹姆斯在刻画人物的形象上却采用了不同的手法。他关注的是意识层面上的而不是潜意识的心理活动。所以,詹姆斯不属于“意识流”小说家。 詹姆斯漫长的写作生涯结满了累累硕果。他的小说批评理论是文学创作不可分割的一部分。他的作品包括了

大量而充实的文学理论著作。他对小说理论研究的杰出贡献主要包括两个方面:“纽约版”小说集序言和论文《小说的艺术》。“纽约版”小说集共出版24卷,詹姆斯为其中18卷写了序言。这些文论是他关于小说理论的最重要文献资料,我们可以从中洞察作者的内心世界,同时也可以了解他对小说艺术的深刻认识。1884年詹姆斯发表了他最有影响的论文《小说的艺术》,作为对沃尔特·贝赞特《小说作为一门美好的艺术》这篇演讲的回应。然而,经历岁月沧桑,贝赞特的演讲几乎被人们忘却,而詹姆斯的这篇论文却成为研究小说艺术的最重要

的文论著述之一流传于世。 詹姆斯创立了一整套独特的小说理论,也是一位出色的批评家。在创作之初,他就把小说当作一种文学创作的艺术形式——“最辉煌的艺术形式”,着手建立自己的理论,并逐步形成一套理论体系。在《小说的艺术》中,他表达了自己小说艺术创作的观点。他强调小说和生活的关系。把小说看作“一种个人的、直接的对生活的印象。”1他指出,“一部小说存在的唯一理由就是它的确试图反映生活。一旦它放弃这种企图,……它将会陷入一种奇怪的境地。”2他在强调小说艺术的真实性时说,“真实性(细节刻画的实在性)是一

部小说的最重要的优点—所有其他优点都无可奈何、俯首听命地依附的那个优点。”在詹姆斯看来,正是由于这方面的成功“就构成了小说家艺术的开始和终结。”1詹姆斯还强调了从生活中提炼出典型事物的重要性,他认为,“艺术本质上就是选择,但它是一种以具有典型性、具有全面性为其主要目标的选择。”2人物的心理描写是小说不可缺少的。詹姆斯很注重人物的心理,他的小说技巧就是围绕着外部事件对人物内心所产生的影响这个中心来反映现实。詹姆斯刻画的人物很少有动作。他们的思想、情感、性格都是通过对话、心理活动以及细

节描写展现出来的。詹姆斯的观点对小说理论的发展做出了巨大的贡献。在创作实践中,尤其是早期,詹姆斯坚持这些原则,力求做到内容和形式的完美统一,尽可能用最高的艺术形式表达道德内容。因此,在《英国小说》中,沃尔特·艾伦这样评价詹姆斯的创作特点:“詹姆斯的原则是,只有当作品具有怡人的美学价值时,伦理观念才能得到成功的表现。”3 在由传统的写作方式转向变革发展的过程中,詹姆斯在表现内容和表达技巧上做出一系列的探索、试验和创新,这体现在以下四个方面: 一.以“意识中心”为叙述技巧。这与传统小说采用的“全知视

角”叙述法和自传体第一人称叙述方式不同。詹姆斯创造出了以某个人物为意识中心的叙述方式,通过这个人物和他的意识把故事讲述给读者。例如,在《戴西·米勒》中,意识中心是与戴西接触最多的一个年轻人温特伯恩,整个故事是写戴西周围的人,特别是温特伯恩对戴西的观察和反应。《贵妇人的画像》把女主角伊莎贝尔·阿切尔置于各种观点的汇合处、各种意识的中心点,将她的种种细微感受、受到的启示和反应写得丝丝入扣。 二.有别于传统小说的创作目的。传统小说家关心的是“在这个世界上人怎样才能生存下去”,而詹姆斯关心

的问题是“生活中真正的经验和感受是什么”。如果说传统小说更多地具有社会学意义的话,詹姆斯使小说更多地具有心理学与哲学的意义。詹姆斯小说的主要角色都有充足的经济来源,不必为生计担忧,从而可以集中力量探索道德方面的感悟。在他刻画的女主角当中,伊莎贝尔·阿切尔便是一位代表人物。詹姆斯有意安排她凭空得来一大笔遗产,从而能专心致志地去体验生活、发现生活,更深刻地了解人的本性。 三.从外部情节转入精神世界。从现实主义到现代主义,小说反映的对象和表现题材逐步从外部社会转向内心世界,从客观环境转向主

观精神。读者常常会抱怨在詹姆斯的小说里几乎什么也没有发生,一篇杰克·伦敦或欧·亨利的短篇小说可能比詹姆斯的一部长篇小说具有更多故事情节。对詹姆斯来说,冲突的舞台已不是外部事件,而是内心生活;他的目的不在于叙述一连串的事件,而在于再现一种情景;他要着重表现的不是人物的所作所为,而是他的所思所感。詹姆斯的心理现实主义恰当地反映了他的作品中体现的新与旧的交替。“现实主义”反映他与传统的联系;“心理分析”和“心理描写”反映了他对新题材、新形式的探索。在这一转折时期,詹姆斯拉开了现代主义小说的序

幕。 四.形成独特的后期詹姆斯风格。詹姆斯的后期风格是在反复推敲、不断实践的基础上形成的。作品中的语言经过反复锤炼,表达的事物和感情含蓄微妙、难以捉摸;形容词选用力求精确具体、恰到好处。句子结构冗长,层次复杂,常常是从句中套从句,并不时被插入语所打断。这种一味追求高雅修饰的做法使他失去了早期作品的那种清新秀丽。H. G.威尔斯把这种累赘的文风形象地比作“采豌豆的大河马。”1读詹姆斯的作品需要耐心,不过,只要我们集中注意力仔细地阅读便能品味出作品内在的美,领略到它的真正含义。我们应该认识到,“如

果笼统地指责詹姆斯后期形成的风格是有意走上歧途,那就误解了他的意图。他是先有了那种思想,才有那种风格的。”2詹姆斯的风格成了他小说创作的有力工具。基于以上四个方面的分析领会,论文的作者把对詹姆斯研究中的一些想法组织在一起,构勒出论文的基本框架。本文共有八个部分组成。引言部分主要讲述詹姆斯的创作生涯、主要文学成就、小说作品及其小说评论,以及对詹姆斯研究的文献综述和这篇论文的写作意图。总之,引言提供了詹姆斯作为伟大的小说家和著名的批评家的总体概况。

第一章分析了传统小说的特点,并阐

明了传统小说描写人物心理的方法及其功用,以形成与詹姆斯心理小说的写作方法的对照。 第二章讨论了詹姆斯描写人物心理的心理现实主义的技巧和方法。它具体说明了詹姆斯描写人物心理的方法与传统小说的方法的不同,详细分析了詹姆斯在小说创作中使用的“意识中心”,他的小说与传统小说不同的创作目的,由外部叙述转向人物的心理描写,以及詹姆斯的晚期风格。本章主要强调了詹姆斯对传统现实主义小说心理描写方法的继承和发扬,和他对现代意识流小说创作技巧的深刻影响。 第三章分析了詹姆斯的优秀作品《贵妇

人的画像》的写作技巧。这部长篇小说可谓小说发展史上一部具有重要意义的作品,因为在这部小说中作者第一次冲破了传统小说的写作方式,以女主人公伊莎贝尔·阿切尔为意识中心,将各种不同的观点集于一身,以她的视角去体验现实生活、感悟人生的真谛。作者精微细致地描绘了伊莎贝尔对周围环境与人物的各种内心感受与心理变化,使外部世界通过人物的内心活动得到充分表现,使故事情节在人物的内心活动中自然展开。从伊莎贝尔的人生经历中读者看到她自由独立的性格,她选择了自己的婚姻,最后饱尝了自己的选择所带来

苦果。因为她意外地得到一笔可观的遗产,所以这位年轻富有的漂亮女士成了金钱追逐者所猎获的目标,从而使她陷入莫尔夫人精心设置的圈套,成为一场悲剧婚姻的牺牲品。她自主冒险的人生经历,增强了她对人和社会的感悟能力,使她更加清楚地认识了丈夫奥斯曼和莫尔夫人的丑恶本质。然而,她最终并没有逃避不幸的婚姻生活,相反她勇敢地面对人生,承担起了生活的重任。这一切都充分体现了她非凡的人生观和价值观。 第四章细致地分析了詹姆斯的另外一部作品《鸽翼》的写作方法。这部小说分别以三个主要人物凯特·克洛伊、梅

尔顿·登社和米丽·塞尔作为小说某一阶段的意识中心,从他们的不同视角出发向读者提供了他们丰富多彩的人生经历。当一个人物面临着人生重大的抉择时,他必然要进行激烈思想斗争、产生复杂的内心活动。作者正是抓住了这些人物的心理意识,表现出人物的精神世界,反映了真实的生活。小说一开始是以凯特的视角展开的。她家庭困窘但又渴望豪华奢侈的生活,不得不承受着来自各方面的压力。富有的姨妈玛蒂要求凯特必须与父亲断绝关系,并嫁给马克爵士,才能有机会继承她的财产。而凯特爱上了一个没有显赫家庭背景的年轻穷记

者登社。她面临着艰难的抉择,决心要同时拥有个人幸福和财富,并且通过获得金钱来征服世界,最终改变她人生的命运。接着,小说以登社的视角展开。他深深地爱着凯特,渴望和她结婚。但他痛苦地意识到他和凯特的未来会受到客观经济条件的限制。凯特与姨妈玛蒂谋划让登社和富有而身患不治之症的米丽结婚,等米丽死后,凯特和登社就可以分得她的财产,而后在一起享受美好的婚姻生活。在欺骗米丽的过程中,登社感受到了她的天真无邪、纯洁善良。登社受到良心上谴责,忍受着无尽的痛苦,最终做出决定,放弃接受米丽的财产。最后,透

过米丽的视角,读者能洞悉到她真实的内心世界。女主人公米丽拥有百万家产,得知自己得了一种不治之症后,她来到欧洲想充分扩大人生的阅历,尽情地享受一番人生的快乐。在伦敦她结识了凯特和登社。她对登社产生了爱慕之情,但她并不知道登社与凯特已私订婚约。与美丽世故的凯特相比,米丽显得单纯幼稚,她总感到有一种潜在的威胁和不足,因此,在生活中米丽逐步脱离社会,逃避现实生活,渐渐把自己孤立起来。由于忍受着一种无形的心理压力和无尽的精神恐惧,米丽万念俱灰,百无聊赖,她无法接受生活和来去自如地应对生活,所以最

后走向死亡是她必然的结局。告别这个世界时,她把财产留给了登社,自己终于像鸽子一样展开双翼飞走了。在人生舞台上,米丽只能扮演一个弱者的角色,她是一只鸽子;而在道德品质上,她又是一个了不起的强者,她是一个天使。为了在道义上对别人产生持久的影响,她选择了自我牺牲。 第五章分析了詹姆斯的又一杰作《金碗》独特的叙事技巧。小说中出现了两个意识中心,小说的前半部分以王子阿莫瑞苟为意识中心,后半部分以玛吉·维尔维为意识中心。小说的前半部分描述了阿莫瑞苟与玛吉这一显性结构中的情节,同时也表现了他在和

玛吉结婚后与夏洛特进一步发展的情人关系;后半部分表现了玛吉从蒙在鼓里到逐渐明确夏洛特与阿莫瑞苟真实关系的过程。从人物不同视角的叙述中,读者能了解到一个家庭中两对夫妇之间的复杂微妙的关系,洞察人物在特定环境中形成的难以启齿的心理状态。女儿玛吉·维尔维嫁给了王子阿莫瑞苟,但婚后她仍深深依恋着父亲,因为怕父亲阿达姆·维尔维孤独苦闷,她安排父亲与夏洛特结了婚。可是,不久她便发现了丈夫和继母的不正当的关系,这激起了玛吉的嫉妒和愤怒,同时也唤醒了她的女性意识。她用沉默的方式与他们进行了不

屈不挠的斗争,对他们施加强大的压力,最终迫使夏洛特屈服,不得不和丈夫阿达姆一起离开去了美国,玛吉重新赢得了王子的爱,阿莫瑞苟又回到了她的身边。玛吉用异乎寻常的方式恰如其分地处理了她与父亲阿达姆之间,以及与夏洛特和阿莫瑞苟这对旧情人之间错综复杂的关系,表现了人物极其复杂的心理活动。玛吉的人际关系比较前两位人物伊莎贝尔和米丽复杂,她是唯一同时拥有父亲、丈夫和孩子的人物。作品从心理学的角度出发,探索了人物的个性特点,通过人物之间的关系来揭示主人公的心理变化。从玛吉的前后转变过程,读者

能够清楚地看到她的心理演变轨迹:由一个依恋父亲的自我,转变为保护性的自我,最后到获得独立的自我。在伊莎贝尔、米丽和玛吉三个人物中,玛吉又是唯一一个不屈服于生活的打击而取得胜利者。她获得了自由和独立,维护了自己的权益。 第六章探讨了詹姆斯的心理现实主义人物心理描写的方法和技巧对意识流小说家产生的影响。现代小说探索人物的精神世界,心理现实主义也是揭示人物的内心世界,二者都力求通过心理意识的描写来表现真实的生活,有异曲同工之妙。不过,意识流小说反映的是潜意识的心理活动,而心理现实主

义则反映人物的意识活动。通过对比、分析,本文试图找出它们之间对人物心理描写的异同,在意识流小说家詹姆斯·乔伊斯、弗吉妮亚·伍尔夫和威廉·福克纳的作品中发现亨利·詹姆斯影响的痕迹,从而,在这位伟大的小说家身上感受到现代主义的气息。 最后结语部分与引言部分相照应,它回顾了亨利·詹姆斯的小说创作、文学批评以及他的心理小说对意识流小说家产生的影响。他的心理现实主义小说中的心理描写技巧由产生,经过不断发展而日臻成熟,而且这种写作技巧已经达到了较高的水平。詹姆斯擅长刻画人物的心理活动。他的几部

主要作品,如《贵妇人的肖像》、《鸽翼》、《金碗》等,体现出这样一个共同的特点:主人公都是美国上流社会的女性。伊莎贝尔,米丽和玛吉她们用自己的切身经历去体验生活、感悟人生,从中获得对人性和社会本质的认识,只不过她们对待生活的态度、采取的方式和所得到结局不同而已。伊莎贝尔默默地忍受着痛苦的人生,选择了“承担生活义务”(commitment to life);米丽难以承受生活的压力而死去了,

表现出的是“做出自我牺

牲”(self-sacrificing);玛吉则转变成“维护自我权益”(self-assertion),最终赢得了胜利。 T. S.艾略特在他的文论《传

统与个人才能》中认为,一个作者的文学创作技巧不是孤立发展起来的,他是继承了以往的文学传统,在前人的基础上逐步形成的。另外,他还要用自己富有个性的文学创作对文学传统的发展做出自己的贡献。在心理描写上,詹姆斯吸取了传统小说的经验,经过革新和发展,形成他特有的风格,并为意识流小说的发展奠定了基础,从而成为由现实主义到现代主义的过渡性的人物。詹姆斯对传统的革新和对后世的影响主要在于他对小说人物心理的探索和对作品艺术形式的追求,这两点也正是后来风行的现代主义小说最显著、最根本的特点。因

而,他的作品可以称作英美现代主义小说的先声。在他之后,现代主义在英美文学中开始了迅速崛起的历程。 詹姆斯是一位伟大的作家,他在小说理论和创作实践中都取得了巨大的成就,从而赢得了批评界的一致赞赏。不过国内学术界对詹姆斯的研究存在着不平衡的状况,对有些方面过度重视,而另外一些方面却被忽略。已有的文章主要集中对《黛西·米勒》、《贵妇人的画像》等几部主要作品的分析,很少触及其他作品,尤其是后詹姆斯后期的三部力作评论甚少。国外的研究将詹姆斯与各种风格、不同时代的作家进行比较,似乎没有哪一个文学

家不能拿来与詹姆斯作比较,而国内的学者很少作这方面的尝试。有些批评家和学者只注重詹姆斯作品中的国际主题、道德问题、文化差异和融合等,而很少去关注如何利用詹姆斯的文学理论去解读他自己的作品。因此,在写这篇论文中,作者尽力做到在某一领域内有所突破和创新,具体做了以下三个方面的尝试: 首先,本文分析了詹姆斯描写人物心理的技巧,并与传统小说、意识流小说在心理描写上的方法、手段、技巧相比较,寻求其中的规律性,从而加深对詹姆斯心理现实主义文学作品的理解和认识。 其次,结合詹姆斯的小说理论来研究

他的具体作品,力求借助他自己的理论来阐释他的小说文本。文章通过选取一些有代表性的事例,证明他在创作实践中对小说理论的成功运用。 最后,把研究的重点集中在詹姆斯心理现实主义的创作和其他文学流派之间的关系上。这是一种新的尝试,具体从二者所共同关注的人物的心理和意识入手,找出其表现方法的异同,力图追寻詹姆斯影响“意识流”小说的痕迹。 在构思和写作的过程中,论文的作者遇到的最大的问题在于,由于以前很少有学者或评论家从事上述探讨和研究,所以很难找到足够

的参考资料以备查阅。

Henry James (1843—1916), an outstanding novelist, stylist and critic, was born in New York City of America, but spent most of his lifetime in Europe, and settled permanently in England. In 1915, he became a British subject. He did a lot of researches and experiments.

He had a prolific literary career spanning over 50 years, which produced 22 novels, 112 short stories, 7 plays, numerous essays and a large number of lively correspondences. Partly because he spent most of his adult life in England, partly because his intricate style and choice of cultivated characters ran counter to the dominant American vernacular tradition initiated by Mark Twain, James attracted, in his lifetime, only a select company of admirers. His intrinsic importance, as well as his wide influence as a novelist and critic, was not recognized until the

1930’s, when American literary taste reached a new level of sophistication. As a voluminous writer, James has a unique place in the history of the novel both in America and in England. His influence has been quieter, less spectacular, but more pervasive as compared with that of some of his contemporaries. As early as 1918, T. S. Eliot termed James“the most intelligent man of his generation”1. Philip Rahv called him“the America’s greatest novelist’2, and Yvor Winters

proclaimed him“the greatest novelist in English”3. The British critic F. R. Leavis rhetorically demanded:“What achievement in the art of fiction…can we point to in English as surpassing his?”4 It is generally accepted that he is one of the four or five most important English novelists of his times. In the years from the late 19th century to the

early 20th century, when James lived and was engaged in literary creation, the major American and European capitalist countries entered the stage of

imperialism. With the speedy development of capitalism, the various contradictions inherent in it became acute. In this period, realist literature which flourished in the middle and late

19th century began to decline. Discontented with their literary achievements of realism, many writers attempted to pave a new way by innovating and experimenting with subject matters and techniques, seeking other writing method to represent the complex social contradictions and profound spiritual crisis. This is the historical background for the rise of modernist literature. Modernism was introduced from the continent of Europe to Britain in the late 19th

century. It was first reflected in the works of Oscar Wilde’s aestheticism, those of decadentism and the poetry of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. In the English novel, James was one of the first explorers. His creative techniques of writing novels made him the key figure occupying a unique position in the development of fiction, in which he combined traditional heritage and contemporary attributes.“Beginning in the familiar

tradition of the novel, James increasingly turned his attention to aspects of fiction previously almost unnoticed, aspects which largely make

him the inspirer of the modern experimental novel.”1 Those unnoticed

aspects are the exploration and description of the state of mind of the character and the subtle changes of the character’s psychology. The Portrait of

a Lady is considered a book of great importance in the history of the novel. It was in this novel that James first completely broke away from the traditional technique of novel-writing. The character’s significant actions were almost entirely embodied in terms of his inner life. Just as Michael Swan said,“This method is more or less taken for granted by the modern novelist, but in 1881 it was an unnoticed revolution of technique.”2 Due to historical limitations, the psychological activity of the character was neglected by people, and this writing method was hard to be widely recognized and accepted. James made detailed analysis of the character’s psychology and consciousness in his works. The

technique he used was

called“psychological realism”, which reflected the characteristics of the

method in novel writing in the transition from the traditional to the modern. He both inherited the tradition of realism and emphasized the analysis and description of the character’s psychology, attempting to make a breakthrough in form of art and technique of expression. At the same time, Western psychology made much progress, which led to the clear recognition of man’s inner self, and the innovation of literary creation in content and form. The theory of psychoanalysis advanced by Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud surely stimulated and propelled the development of the novel of

psychological realism. People began to realize that literature and psychology have something in common: both are related to man’s action and motivation, and involved in man’s exploration of

subjective mental world. The novelists, who were interested in the description and analysis of human soul, supposed that they could absorb sufficient nutrition from the study of modern psychology in its exploration of human soul, in order to create a series of psychological novels. Influenced and promoted by such ideological trend, psychological realism came into being.

Therefore, the emergence of

psychological realism is the outcome of the evolution of the novel itself, and the outcome of the development of modern psychology linking closely to it. Psychological realism is an important literary phenomenon in the course of transition from traditional realism to modernism which was against the tradition. Psychological realism consists of two aspects: psychology and realism. They are complementary and

indispensable to each other and form an organic whole. On the one hand, it emphasizes the reflection of reality and the objective world through psychology of the characters; on the other hand, it

stresses the necessity of the correspondence between the description of the psychological content and the objective reality, to achieve the organic unity of the objective world of reality and the subjective world of the mind. Psychological realism is a creative method of narrative literature and an important literary trend of the 20th century. Based on realism, it discloses

the inner working of the

characters’mind by means of psychological description and psychological analysis. This is a new type of principle in literary creation. James was, first of all, a realist. He held

to fairly traditional notions of realism: the beauty of form is not pursued merely for its own sake but in the process of depicting a complex and authentic experience that rests on the contingencies of life. For him, the task of the novel was mainly to represent life. But unlike William Dean Howells

and the naturalists, he was not interested in business, politics or the conditions of society. He was an observer of the mind rather than a recorder of the times. His realism was a special kind of psychological realism. Few of his stories include big events or exciting actions. In fact, the characters in his finest novels watch life more than they live in it. Things happen to them, but not as a result of their own actions. We readers are interested in how their minds respond to the events of the story. What do they see? How do

they try to understand it? The changing consciousness of the character is the real story. The Jameses were endowed with an almost clinical curiosity about human behavior, which led his brother William James to become the founder of the science of psychology in America. Henry James was the first novelist to recognize clearly that the materials of the novel and those of scientific psychology were identical. He insisted that a novelist’s primary duty should be to reveal exactly what went on in the inner world of a character. He condemned almost all preceding novelists for injecting their own interpretations into their books by explicit comments. James tried to be away from his novel except for explanations sometimes. Just as Flaubert required, the writer should be like“God in the universe, everywhere

present but nowhere visible.”1 And then he added:“the artist should no more appear in his works than does God in nature. Man is nothing, his work is everything.”2 As early as the late 19th century, most readers were not ready for such a new approach and so James’s greatest novels were not very popular. But in the 20th-century

literature, the“stream of

consciousness”method became quite

common. Thanks to modern

psychology and writers like James, we are now more interested in the inner workings of the mind. We know that events inside one’s head can be as dramatic as events in the outside world. And James has now firmly established himself as one of the major novelists and critics in the English world and as psychological realist of unsurpassed

subtlety. The“stream of

consciousness”technique was widely used in modernist writings. The“stream of consciousness”novel is a special type of the psychological novel. The term is traced back to a brilliant account of thought in Principles of Psychology (1890) by William James. The metaphor was introduced by William to describe the flux of the mind, its continuity and yet its continuous change. As the apex of

modernism, the“stream of

consciousness”novel is in consistency

with Henry James’s novels of psychological realism in their display of the conflicts in the inner life of human beings. However, the Jamesian

novel and the“stream of

consciousness”novel are different. Although his concern shifted from the external events to the internal world in subject matter, James used different

techniques in creating the images of characters. He paid attention to the psychological activities on the level of

consciousness rather than the subconscious. So Henry James can’t be

regarded as a“stream of

consciousness”novelist. James’s criticism on the novel is a component part of his literary creation. His works include, in addition to fiction, a substantial body of literary criticism. His outstanding contribution to the study of the novel lies in two separate parts of his critical writings: Prefaces to the“New York Edition”and“The Art of Fiction”. James’s 24 volumes of collected works were issued by Jamesian scholars from 1907 to 1917. James wrote a critical preface for each volume, yet only 18 of them were finished. These prefaces are surely among the most important documents

on prose fiction, for they not only give an insight into the mind of a great writer, but also reveal the art of the novel. In 1884, James published his most influential essay“The Art of Fiction”in the magazine Longman’s. It was written in reply to a lecture“Fiction as a Fine Art” delivered by Sir Walter Bessant. Bessant’s lecture has been forgotten by all except literary scholars, but James’s essay has remained one of the most important studies on the art of fiction. James developed a distinctive set of theory on fiction, so he was also an outstanding critic. At the very beginning of his writing, he set about to found a theory, to conceive novel as a form of art for literary creation—“the most magnificent form of art”. In“The Art of Fiction”, he expressed his opinions on the creation of the art of novel. James stressed the connection

between the novel and the real life. He viewed a novel as“a personal, a direct impression of life”1 He pointed out,“The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life. When it relinquishes this attempt,…it will have arrived at a very strange pass.”2 He emphasized the reality of the art of the novel, by saying“the air of reality (solidity of specification) seems to me to be the supreme virtue of a novel—the merit on which all its other merits helplessly and submissively depend. If it be not there they are all as nothing, and if these be there, they owe their effect to the success with which the author has produced the illusion of life. The cultivation of this success, the study of this exquisite process, form, to my taste, the beginning and the end of the art of the novelist.”3 He also attached

importance to extracting typical things from life, and remarked,“Art is essentially selection, but it is a selection whose main care is to be typical, to be inclusive.”4 The description of the psychology of the character is indispensable to the novel. James was intensely concerned for the psychological life of his characters and developed a novelistic technique that centered itself in the representation of the effect produced in the inner self by external events. The characters created by James do not act much. Their ideas,

emotions and personality find expression in dialogues, in their thought and in the description of details. All the opinions advanced by James have made a great contribution to the development of the theory of fiction, and in his writing practice, especially in

his earlier period, James always

adhered to these theories, trying to make a perfect union between content and form, to express the ethic content in the highest form of art. Therefore, in The English Novel, Walter Allen said when commenting on James:“Ethics are one thing and aesthetics doubtless another, but it was James’s principle the ethical could be rendered successfully in fiction only when the representation was aesthetically satisfying.”1 In the course of his change from tradition to reform, James

made a series of explorations, experimentation and innovations in the representation of content and the employment of techniques. They are mainly embodied in the following four

aspects: 1. The“central

consciousness”—a new narrative technique. As never before, James studied how a novel should be told.

Former novelists employed two fundamental patterns—omniscient and autobiographical. James experimented constantly with“viewpoints”(or angle of narration). His favorite device was a story-telling line directed from and toward one character; nothing should enter the narrative but the perception of

this character. James is always conscious of how the reader is hearing and seeing his story. Basically, he stays away from the omniscient narrator except for occasional comments. He usually attempts to tell the story from the point of view of a character in the work. For example, in Daisy Miller, the story is seen through the mind of Winterbourne. The reader can note there that the story is never seen from Daisy’s point of view. The story is about how Daisy is seen by others, especially by Winterbourne. The

Portrait of a Lady is also a good example for us to understand the mind, perception and reaction of the central character Isabel Archer. What Maisie Knew is a successful work in technique. Maisie is an innocent girl. Her immoral parents divorced. The whole story is unfolded in the maturity of the perception and recognition of Maisie. Through the eye of a pure na?ve girl, the reader can see the moral corruption and degeneration of the adult world. The experiments carried out by James opened the way to such later techniques

as those of John Dos Passos and Morman Mailer. 2. The purpose of the novel. The purpose of James’s novel is different from that of the writings of the previous novelists. His novel has a completely new orientation. Unlike his predecessors he does not ask,“How does one get ahead in this life?”He

demands,“What is the actual experience of living?”If the traditional novel is more socially implied, James’s

novel bears more meaning

psychologically and philosophically. Purposely James makes his characters financially independent so that they can ignore the economic pressures usually felt by the character realistic novelists created. Many of his characters are therefore women, who are less likely to

be wholly wrapped up in

money-making than are men. Free from financial worries, the characters can concentrate on the exploration of moral perception. In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer received a large amount of legacy unexpectedly, so that she could live a free, independent life as she wished. Only in this way, was she able to explore, perceive and discover life and understand the nature of human

beings. 3. The withering away of external plot. The shift from external events to internal spirit is the sign of an important change in the 20th century novel. From realism to modernism, the objects of reflection and subject matter of representation turned from exterior society to interior world, from objective environments to subjective mind. Readers of James have constantly complained that almost nothing“happened”in his fiction; a short story by Jack London or by O. Henry may display far more“plot”than any full-length James’s novel. With James the arena of conflict has shifted from outside events to the inner life of the character. The fiction of James arises not from a sense of action but from a desire to present a“case”or a“situation”. Like many of the modernist writers, James finds that the

inner working of one’s mind is

complex, in unrest and in constant flow.

In depicting the inner world of characters, he pays much attention to the description and analysis of their psychology and its shades of change. He makes use of various kinds of words, different grammatical and rhetorical devices to reflect vividly and minutely the subtle emotion and perception. His technique exerted great

impact on the“stream of

consciousness”novelists, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and others. Psychological realism embodies the transition from the old to the new in

James’s literary

creation.“Realism”reflects his connection with tradition,

and“psychology”indicates his exploration and innovation in subject matter and form. In this sense, he is a

transitional figure from the traditional literature of realism to the literature of modernism. At the turn of the period, James’s work acted as a prelude to modernist novels. 4. The later style of James. In order to give an exact and lively expression of the observation and perception of the characters, James needed a new style. After years of consideration and practice, he developed a peculiar style, which is usually called“the later style of James”. His refined language became as subtle and meticulous as the things and emotions he expressed. After repeated deliberation, he tried to seek the most exact adjectives to fit the need of expression. He liked to select abstract

words to express obscure and ambiguous meaning. Sometimes he used French words. The complex sentence became longer and longer,

often interrupted by parentheses, modified by different levels of clauses.

As a result, a sentence is so

complicated that you don’t understand the meaning until you read it through. It seemed that James loaded his writing with fancy phrases, which made his works intricate, difficult to understand. The mere pursuit of elegance accounts for the loss of the freshness and beauty. In The Great Tradition, F. R. Leavis criticized James, saying that he sometimes made the readers too bored to go on reading. H. G. Wells gave a vivid description of James’s style comparing it as“a hippopotamus rolling a pea”1. However, if we criticize the later style of James as his disadvantage, it is a complete failure; if we regard it as his peculiar advantage, it has poetic beauty. It requires patience to read James’s works. Only an attentive reader

can find the true meaning of his works and the beauty hidden in them and really appreciate his peculiar style. We must realize,“To accuse James of perverseness in forming his later style is entirely to misunderstand its purpose; the ideas, not the style, came first.”1 James’s style is his proper instrument for novel writing. Bearing the four points above in mind, the author of the thesis organized his ideas about Henry James to sketch out a basic structure for

the dissertation, though it is an imperfect one. This dissertation consists of eight chapters. The introduction serves as the preliminary

part which provides the basic information about James’s writing career, his literary achievements, his novels and criticism on the novel, the review of the study of James and the purpose of this paper. This introduction

offers a general outline of James as a great novelist and a famous critic. Chapter 1 gives a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the traditional novel, illuminates the ways employed by the traditional novelists to describe the psychology of the characters and their important functions in literary creation so as to form a striking contrast with James’s novels of psychological realism. Chapter 2 deals

with James’s techniques of psychological realism. It specifically

explains the difference of his

techniques from those of the traditional novel. It analyzes in detail his“central consciousness”, the purpose of his novel, the withering away of his plot,

and his later style. It mainly

emphasizes James’s inheritance of the methods of psychological description in the realist novels and his influence

on the techniques of the modern“stream of consciousness”novels. Chapter 3 discusses how James used his techniques to describe the psychology of the heroine in his best work The Portrait of a Lady. The novel is an important work in the history of the development of fiction, in which the novelist broke away from the technique of narration of the traditional novel for the first time. In the novel Isabel Archer becomes the central character, who is the embodiment of different points of view. From her different angles of narration, the reader can experience reality and perceive the truth of life. The novelist described in detail Isabel’s perception of the environment and the characters around her and the heroine’s psychological changes. The external world was fully reflected through the character’s

activities of psychology, and the plot unfolded naturally in the consciousness of the character. From Isabel’s life experience the reader can see her free and independent character, her choice of her marriage and finally her suffering from the consequence of her choice. She accidentally received a large sum of legacy from her uncle, so the wealthy young lady Isabel became the object of the money-hunters. She was trapped by the plot of Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. She became the victim of the tragic marriage. Through her adventurous experience, she finally recognized the true nature of her evil husband Osmond and Madme Merle. However, she did not escape from life in the end, instead she was bold enough to take her responsibility and made a commitment to life, which her unusual philosophy of

life and sense of value. Chapter 4 provides a detailed analysis of the techniques James adopted in writing another novel The Wings of the Dove. In the novel, each of the three main characters Merton Densher, Kate Croy and Milly Theale respectively acted as the focal character of a certain stage in the unfolding of the plot. From their different points of view, the characters provided the reader with various and colorful experiences of social life. When a person is facing an important choice that has to be made at the crossroads of his life, he must have fierce mental struggle or conflict, and exhibit complex psychological activities. It was the complicated consciousness of the characters that James learned thoroughly and applied in his description of the character’s mental world to reflect the truth of life.

First, the novel begins with the narration of Kate. From her point of view, the reader learns about her family background and her present situation.

Though she was in straitened circumstances, she longed for a luxurious life. She had to withstand various tremendous pressures that came from all sides. Her rich aunt required her to break off relations with her father and marry Lord Mark before she could get the opportunity to inherit a fortune. But Kate fell in love with Densher, a London journalist who came from an impoverished family. It was hard for her to make a decision in face of such a thorny problem. She made up her mind to possess both happiness and property. She was resolved to conquer the world through the money she could receive. Only in this way could she change her fate of life. And then the

novel develops with the narrative of Densher. He related his love story and how he managed to deal with the relationship with Kate and Milly. He had deep affection for Kate and desired to marry her soon, but he painfully realized that their future life would be restricted by their objective financial conditions. Kate and her aunt planned that Densher should marry wealthy, dying Milly who suffered from a fatal disease, so that, after her death, they could share her money, marry themselves and enjoy a happy life together. When they practiced deception on poor Milly, Densher was aware of her innocence, purity and kindness. Now he had a guilty conscience. He was stricken with self-revulsion at his behavior, and revulsion against Kate. In the end he was determined to give up Milly’s

property. He would marry Kate without the money but not with it, while Kate would not marry him without it. Finally, the novel is narrated from the point of view of Milly, through which the reader can see her true inner world. The heroine Milly, a millionairess, came to Europe in search of experience in the widest sense, for a taste of conscious happiness before her death, as she was condemned to an early death by in an incurable disease. In London she got acquainted with Densher and Kate. She fell in love with Densher, but she did not know Densher had been secretly engaged to Kate. Compared with Kate, who was beautiful and experienced, Milly was simple and innocent. So she had a feeling of potential threat and psychological deficiency. She was determined to be isolated from society. She chose to escape from life and keep

aloof from others. Having tolerated intangible depression and countless fear, Milly was totally disillusioned with life and indifferent to everything. She was unable to adjust herself to the new environments. She was reluctant to accept life. As a result, she was doomed to die. Before she died she had left her

fortune to Densher. At last, she stretched her wings like a dove and flew away. On the stage of life, Milly played the role of a weak woman, who was only a dove; in morality, she was a great woman of strong character, who was an angel. In order to exert permanent influence on others morally, she chose self-sacrifice. Chapter 5 gives a concrete analysis of the unique narrative devices James employed in his masterpiece The Golden Bowl. In the novel, there are two characters

represented as the central

consciousness in its narration. The first part of the novel is presented through Prince Amerigo’s consciousness, and the second part through Maggie Verver’s consciousness. The former relates the relationship of husband and wife between Amerigo and Maggie and

the further development of the adulterous relationship between Amerigo and Charlotte even after Amerigo’s marriage to Milly and Charlotte’s marriage to Maggie’s father; the latter tells of the process of Milly’s being in the dark and then gradually knowing the true relationship of Amerigo and Charlotte. From the different points of view of the characters, the reader can learn much

about the complex and subtle relationships between the two couples in one family and penetrate the unintelligible psychology of the

characters in a specific situation. The daughter Maggie married the Prince Amerigo, but she was still attached to her father Adam. After marriage she was unwilling to see her father’s loneliness. So under her arrangement her father got married to Charlotte. Unfortunately she soon discovered the adulterous relationship between her husband Amerigo and her stepmother Charlotte. This aroused Maggie’s jealousy of Charlotte, and awakened her sense of femininity. But the measures she took to deal with the situation were different from those taken by the former two heroines Isabel and Milly. She saw through Charlotte and Amerigo but kept silent about their

love affairs by which to impose immense pressure on them. She struggled unyieldingly against them. Finally Charlotte broke down under

such a great force so that she and Adam had to leave for an American city. Maggie won back the love of her husband. Maggie dealt with the complex relationships between her and Adam, daughter and father, between Amerigo and Charlotte, the old pair of lovers, in an unusual way. Maggie had more complex personal relations with other characters in the novel than Isabel and Milly, the two characters before her in James’s two previous novels. She was the only heroine who possessed simultaneously a parent, a husband and

a child. From the perspective of psychology, the novel explores the characters’personality and discloses the psychological change of the heroine through the relations of the characters. The transformation of Maggie from the beginning to the end reveals to the reader such a track of change: an

individual attached to her father turning into a woman who knew how to protect

herself and then gaining her

independence. She was the only one of the three heroines Isabel, Milly and Maggie to repel the whole attack of life and won the victory in her struggle against her destiny. Finally she broke the bond with her father Adam and they were kept away by geographic distance. Maggie became free and independent. She realized her self-assertion. Chapter

6 studies the impact of James’s techniques of psychological realism on the“stream of consciousness”novelists. Through comparison and analysis, this dissertation attempts to discover similarities and differences between James’s techniques and the“stream of consciousness”techniques and search for the signs of James’s influence on such great novelists as James Joyce,

Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, so as to make the air of modernism in the great master of fiction deeply felt. The conclusion is a comprehensive

retrospect of James’s great achievements in novel writing and literary criticism and the influence his psychological novels exercised on the“stream of consciousness”novelists. James’s technique of psychological realism advanced along a clear line: he adopted the technique at the beginning of his writing career, it went through constant development in his writing practice, and finally reached its maturity. James’s major novels The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl have both similarities and differences in content and technique. The heroines Isabel Archer, Milly Theale, and Maggie Verver share a common feature: they

are all the American upper-class women. All of them explored society and perceived life through their own experiences, but their results were different. Isabel silently endured the painful life, and made a commitment to life; Milly could not bear the heavy burden of life and died, making her self-sacrifice; Maggie finally triumphed over the attack of life, and realized self-assertion. A writer must, according to T. S. Eliot’s essay“Tradition and the Individual Talent”, must respect and follow the tradition. He must learn from his predecessors writing techniques and make his own contribution to the development of literature by offering new themes, new techniques, etc. The technique of a writer’s literary creation is not something that existed in isolation, he inherited the previous literary tradition

and formed his own technique on the basis of the predecessor’s experience. Besides, he had to do his bit to the development of literary tradition with his individual writing of literary works. In the description of the character’s psychology, James absorbed the fine tradition, developed his own peculiar style through experimentation and innovation. He created his own technique of psychological realism and laid a foundation for the development

of the“stream of

consciousness”technique in novel writing. Therefore, he became the transitional figure between realism and modernism. James’s concern with the psychology of the character and his improvement in subject matter and artistic form are imbued with the air of modernism. The works of the“stream of consciousness”novelists bear the

mark of James’s influence. To some extent, he is worthy the honour of the initiator of the modernist novels. After him, modernism in the Western literature began to rise rapidly. As a great writer, James made tremendous

achievements in