{"id":624,"date":"2022-07-27T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T18:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/american-writer-henry-jamess-unexpected-movie-magic\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T13:29:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T20:29:26","slug":"can-not-look-away-from-henry-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/can-not-look-away-from-henry-james\/","title":{"rendered":"American writer Henry James&#8217;s unexpected movie magic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n            \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3743-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3743-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"American writer Henry James's unexpected movie magic\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Novels by Henry James (right) are set during the decadence of The Gilded Age, a staple of movies and television, including HBO\u2019s <em>The Gilded Age<\/em> (pictured left).\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>American writer Henry James&#8217;s unexpected movie magic<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  One of the greatest novelists ever has also become a staple of the silver screen. What explains his continuing appeal?\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">July 27, 2022<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" 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cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some 150 (and counting) film and TV adaptations of Henry James novels have been produced. Even if you haven\u2019t read his books, you\u2019ve likely watched his plots.<\/li>\n<li>Although he was published before movies were popularized, Henry James anticipated our viewing interests: aristocracy, romantic entanglements and psychological weirdness.<\/li>\n<li>He was writing at a time of changing gender roles, and struggling with his own homosexuality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>You may not have read anything by Henry James, but you\u2019ve likely seen his work on the silver screen. His writing has been adapted for film and television over 150 times, from miniseries to movies, starring luminaries like Marlon Brando, Cybill Shepherd and Nicole Kidman.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, his books, which follow the romantic entanglements and inner lives of turn-of-the-century aristocrats, seem like an odd fit for modern Hollywood.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 271px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/HenryJames_InStory_2-3743.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of Henry James\" width=\"271\" height=\"421\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Rowe has written several books on Henry James, as well as books on American literature and culture. (Photo: Courtesy of John Rowe.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Maybe not, says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/engl\/faculty_display.cfm?Person_ID=1003657\">John Rowe<\/a>, USC Associates Chair in Humanities and professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/engl\">English<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/ase\/\">American studies and ethnicity<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/colt\/\">comparative literature<\/a>\u00a0at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, who has been teaching students about James for nearly 50 years. He explores why James has remained so influential long into the new century, documenting his findings in his latest book,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Our-Henry-James\/Rowe\/p\/book\/9781032286808\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Our Henry James in Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture<\/em><\/a> (Routledge, 2022).<\/p>\n<p>Rowe was partially inspired by a USC Dornsife course he teaches on Henry James, in which he asks his students to examine the reasons for James\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy work with them has led me to a rather odd conclusion for a scholar who has spent much of his life celebrating James\u2019s genius. James does not always rely on ambiguity as a strategic device to encourage the reader; he is often inconclusive because he does not know how to end his story,\u201d writes Rowe. James\u2019s hesitancy around cultural problems, rather than an ability to write universal truths, may best explain his enduring reputation.<\/p>\n<h2>He fuels our love of historical romance<\/h2>\n<p>The usual reason given for James\u2019s continued relevance is our ongoing obsession with the grand historical \u00e9poque the \u201cGilded Age.\u201d Spanning 1870 to around 1900, it was an era marked by a booming, industrializing economy that made some families hugely wealthy. It saw the rise of the Astors, the Carnegies and the Vanderbilts, marked by their lavish parties and grand estates.<\/p>\n<p>James\u2019s novels were centered in this social milieu, one filled with elegant manners, parlor room romances and elaborate dresses. Many of James\u2019 books, like\u00a0<em>The Bostonians<\/em>, have been adapted into popular period films, with decadent sets and costuming. They continue to feed our seemingly endless appetite for historical romance, as exemplified by popular TV shows like\u00a0<em>Bridgerton,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Downton Abbey<\/em>\u00a0and, of course,\u00a0<em>The Gilded Age<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJames represents what many people want to be a part of: the high culture, drinking fine wine surrounded by oil paintings,\u201d says Rowe. \u201cHe exemplifies a high-culture standard of taste, refinement and education for which people today are nostalgic.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>He was as confused about sexuality and changing gender roles as we are<\/h2>\n<p>During The Gilded Age, gender roles began to change. Women worked outside the home more and attended co-educational colleges, and the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement gained considerable steam. This left James, like many of his peers, rather confused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJames didn\u2019t really know how to cope with the changing sexual and gender codes of the era,\u201d says Rowe. Also, James was probably same-sex attracted, a sexuality that was deeply frowned upon in his time. He was never married and likely never had an intimate relationship.<\/p>\n<p>His uncertainty about changing social roles and his discomfort with his own homosexuality are expressed in his handling of intimate relationships. James\u2019s novels, while exploring emotional entanglements, leave few clear moral lessons and plenty of space for conjecture.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Portrait of a Lady<\/em>, the free-spirited Isabel Archer is charmed into marriage by a conman seeking her inheritance. When the marriage sours, Archer is given considerable opportunity to leave her husband and strike out with her fortune, but James leaves her fate uncertain. For readers who believe she leaves her husband, the book is a feminist rallying cry. For others, who see her returning to her loveless marriage, it\u2019s a reconsideration of women\u2019s liberation.<\/p>\n<p>The uncertain ending was likely due to the fact that James himself wasn\u2019t exactly sure in what direction to go \u2014 stick to tradition or embrace women\u2019s liberation?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are lots of places where James just doesn\u2019t have a clue how to end it.\u00a0James doesn\u2019t tell you what to think. The ambiguity prompts us to make our own decisions,\u201d says Rowe.<\/p>\n<h2>Much for Hollywood to play with<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 315px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/InStoryA-3743.jpg\" alt=\"A movie poster for 'The Bostonians'\" width=\"315\" height=\"490\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 1984 adaptation of James\u2019 The Bostonians received two Academy Award nominations. (Image Source: Wiki Commons.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His uncertainty has allowed his writing to become a cipher through which we explore our own ongoing issues in coming to terms with sexuality, relationships between the sexes and gender roles. It\u2019s a flexibility that has made it an excellent medium for Hollywood creativity.<\/p>\n<p>James\u2019 gothic ghost story\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Turn of the Screw<\/em>, in which a governess becomes convinced the children in her care are possessed, is perhaps his most famous tale. Like most of his work, it leaves much unsaid\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including why one of the governess\u2019 charges is sent away from his boarding school at the start of the story.<\/p>\n<p>In a 1961 adaptation of the book,\u00a0<em>The Innocents<\/em>, script writer Truman Capote used this ambiguity to imply that the boy was expelled for being gay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is in the years leading up to the change of movie censorship rules, so writers slipped in coded expressions. Capote inserts the possibility that this young man knows that he\u2019s gay by having him say [he was expelled] because he was \u2018different,\u2019\u201d says Rowe.<\/p>\n<h2>A powerful influence on subsequent writers<\/h2>\n<p>James\u2019 longevity in the canon has meant that each generation of American writers has felt compelled to respond to his work. This is particularly true for American expatriate writers who, like James, moved to Europe and contemplated the American experience from abroad.<\/p>\n<p>James Baldwin, who moved to Paris from New York City, wrote his novel\u00a0<em>Another Country<\/em> in many ways as a response to James. The book begins with an epigraph from James and, like James\u2019s work, explores romantic passions and their ripple effects among a small circle of friends.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a decidedly updated take, however: Its main character is Black, bisexual and involved in an interracial relationship. Baldwin\u2019s book is both an appreciation of James and his way of calling James to task for his flaws. \u201cBaldwin doesn\u2019t reject James \u2014 he\u2019s woven into the novel \u2014 but he\u2019s also delivering a firm reproach to James for missing racial and sexual conflicts,\u201d says Rowe.<\/p>\n<p>James may have lingered long into the modern era, but Rowe isn\u2019t sure he will live on indefinitely. Unlike\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/2263\/6-reasons-shakespeare-remains-an-icon-400-years-after-his-death\/\">Shakespeare\u2019<\/a>s universally appealing love sonnets, or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/3547\/dante-devine-comedy-still-relevant\/\">Dante\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0memorable depictions of hell, James\u2019s appeal is rooted specifically in the social churn of our current era.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHenry James\u2019s enduring reputation has something to do with our inability to overcome the gender and sexual hierarchies, the class divisions and the racial stereotypes of nineteenth-century America and England,\u201d writes Rowe. If we\u2019re able to progress pass this, we\u2019re likely to see James fade into the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t seem bored of him yet, however. In 2020, his work was yet again on the television screen, with the Netflix miniseries\u00a0<em>The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em>, an adaptation of\u00a0<em>The Turn of the Screw<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the greatest novelists ever has also become a staple of the silver screen. What explains his continuing appeal?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[158,74,143,141],"class_list":["post-624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","tag-american-studies-and-ethnicity","tag-english","tag-faculty","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>American writer Henry James&#039;s unexpected movie magic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Novelist Henry James has become a staple of the silver screen. 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