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What Maisie Knew: Nineteenth Century Selfhood in the Mind of the Child

Laing, Roisín

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Authors



Abstract

Henry James’s What Maisie Knew represents the child Maisie’s mind as a repository for adult selfhood in the post-Darwin era. Literary and scientific studies of childhood alike endeavoured to access the innocent knowledge of the child-mind in the late nineteenth century. This article argues that in both theme and style James explores the methodological challenges encountered in such attempts. What Maisie Knew suggests that the child’s mind is imagined as innocent because it resolves a disjunction between language and self. Therefore, despite the title of James’s novel, the child’s mind is necessarily unknowable.

Citation

Laing, R. (2018). What Maisie Knew: Nineteenth Century Selfhood in the Mind of the Child. The Henry James Review, 39(1), 96-109. https://doi.org/10.1353/hjr.2018.0006

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 29, 2016
Online Publication Date Feb 16, 2018
Publication Date Jan 1, 2018
Deposit Date Oct 18, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 22, 2018
Journal Henry James Review
Print ISSN 1080-6555
Electronic ISSN 1080-6555
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 39
Issue 1
Pages 96-109
DOI https://doi.org/10.1353/hjr.2018.0006

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Accepted Journal Article (308 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
© 2018, Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in The Henry James Review, 39, 1, 2018, Winter, 96-112.




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