“Wondrous Texture”: Henry James’s Brocades

Abstract

This essay begins with a brief history of the cultural status of brocade in the 19th century, and then offers a critical account of the ways in which brocade features in Henry James’s work. James’s association of brocade with the aristocracy and the metropole, and his treatment of it as both an embodied object and a metaphor, reveals the textile to be a significant index of a number of his abiding concerns. The essay concludes with a consideration of how brocade both supports and contradicts poststructuralist positions about the referentiality of things in James’s writing, as well as of how brocade provides a fitting analogy for his later style.

Opsomming

 Hierdie essay begin met 'n kort geskiedenis van die kulturele status van brokaat in die 19de eeu, en bied dan 'n kritiese uiteensetting van die wyses waarop brokaat in Henry James se werk aangewend word. James se vereenselwiging van brokaat met die aristokrasie en die metropool, en sy behandeling daarvan as beide 'n beliggaamde voorwerp en 'n metafoor, toon dat die stof as beduidende indeks van 'n aantal van sy standhoudende belangstellings dien. Die essay word afgesluit met 'n oorweging van hoe brokaat poststrukturalistiese beskouings aangaande die wyse waarop aspekte in James se werke na dinge buite hulleself verwys, sowel steun as weerlê, en hoe brokaat 'n paslike analogie vir sy latere styl voorsien.