Development of the Modern Novel

• Art of Fiction (1884)• James argued for an aesthetic status for fiction • Fiction could create reality and add to its

significance• Argued that fiction was not simply a description of

life but could compete with it

Henry James

• James made the art of the novel ‘more conscious’ in both ways – as a writer conscious of his craft and by making his characters ‘finely aware and responsible’

• He made his readers aware of the immense complexities of his characters’ minds

• William James (Principles of Psychology, 1890)• Thought is a stream, an unconscious flow, rather

than a matter of deliberate units of attention. The process can best be described as a ‘stream of thought, of consciousness, of subjective life’.

• By plotting the journeys of the mind in as ‘real’ terms as literal or physical journeys, James changed the terms of where reality could be located.

• The attempt was not only to make fiction art, but to make the art of fiction a better measure of reality.

• Different from James in his political engagement• Prioritised sensory vividness in detail and political

commentary on the evils of imperialism,exploitation and aggression

• Believed that the power of the written word lay in making the reader “feel, hear and above all, see”

Joseph Conrad

• This ‘seeing” would produce a feeling of oneness, of solidarity, which would, in turn, counteract the problems of evil in the world.

• Thus fiction would not only reflect the modern world, but also shape it.

• Other writers (Edith Wharton) explored the modern world through the pressures and forces of materialism.

• These writers wrote and shaped their fiction on response to modern realities of psychology, imperialism and materialism, they also hoped to impact these realities through their fiction. This imparted to MF a unique dialectical characteristic of new realities shaping new technique which in turn shapes new perceptions/realities.