In the s, with demand for his fiction declining, James unsuccessfully tried his hand at writing popular, money-making plays for the British stage.
His protagonists in these works were females, often immature, and their lives entailed deep difficulties and frustrations and a conspicuous element of sexual innuendo. What Maisie Knew, the best of these works, tells of a young girl who is neglected by most of the adult world beginning with her divorced parents.
But the narrative focuses less on her victimization than on her resistance, her passionate effort to understand the queer adult order and to operate in it. Like the international novels James had written in his first maturity, these introduced a rather innocent American hero or heroine into a circle of cosmopolitans. But in these later works, there was no question of social realism.
For many readers these late James novels constitute formal literary perfection, the kind of art that shows supreme stylistic discrimination and structural control.
New anthology of The Arabian Nights has controversial subtext
For others they seem too remote from human life. Like the much earlier Daisy Miller it tells of love frustrated by a certain masculine aloofness.
Would you like to add a Cultural Object? Pedagogy There are no pedagogical assignments or approaches for this author. Hollywood to spotlight the stories of Henry James, a master of shadow http: The Henry James Review http: The Sacrificial Crisis http: The Man at the Margin , F. Weinstein, Henry James and the Requirements of the Imagination , Access Author Profile Pages by: Cultural Objects There are no Cultural Objects for this author. Perhaps you want to make a social comment about injustice, inequality or conflict etc.
What if you have a character that, on the face of it, seems so nice and friendly to all your other characters, but hides something altogether darker beneath his surface? What if you alluded to the kind of person he really is, but did so without giving too much away?
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And as the writer, you never reveal it, but by referencing alcohol within the narrative at certain points, you are laying the foundations of subtext, and the reader will be astute enough to notice the clues and make their own conclusions about the character. But how do you achieve subtext? Subtext is about hinting at something at certain points, or by weaving deep-set imagery and symbolism within the narrative, all without actually revealing anything.
You are showing the reader, but not telling them. Readers will notice this kind of thing. You might use metaphors to create clues for the reader in order to get them to read between the lines. It brings dimension and complexity and hidden meaning, without being overt. Subtext is another way a writer can add extra layers of understanding to their stories.
- First Commandment: Adoration and Prayer.
- Subtext: 24 Literary Postcards!
- Les intellectuels et lindividualisme (La Petite Collection) (French Edition).
- Upcoming Readings;
A story is about many things, some of them obvious, some of them less so. Whichever one, the reader will enjoy your story all the more. AJ Humpage 19 February at Just how long should a chapter be? And does a novel have to fit into a set amount of words? Discover new books on Goodreads. Sign in with Facebook Sign in options.
Subtext Reading Series
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How to use Subtext
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