Henry James and the Pursuit of Consciousness: A Psychostylistic Study of the Beast in the Jungle

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to investigate the nature of stylistic
choices that markedly appear in the literary discourse of Henry James
in order to exemplify the desired aims of the author embedded within
these choices along with the impressions these stylistic choices create
on the mind of the reader in a comprehensive framework of
Psychostylistics. The surfacing of interest to enquire James in the
background of Psychostylistics stems largely from Postmodernist focus
on the author’s consciousness that encompasses all mental activity.
Since James is such an hypnotic icon in modern American fiction
whose narratives do not propose any incontestable and overtly precise
interpretation, thus not only entail universal appeal but the process of
construing the language structure in terms of style positing a challenge
for the critic or the researcher. This literary orientation is essentially
the crucial one to which the argument of this oeuvre has been directed.
The formal design of the study is based on Roger Fowler’s theory of
‘mind style’. Practical analysis has been done by applying the
properties of Bocketing (1994)’s model of Psychostylistics eclectically
and homogeneously, which draws upon the theoretical underpinnings
and critical insights provided by the theory of mind style. A three-fold
perspective resulting from characteristic stylistic choices and narrative
tripartite position in terms of the narrator, the narrated and the
narratee has been followed to make the research more practical and
applicable.