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Year 2014, Issue: 40, 65 - 74, 01.10.2014

Abstract

References

  • Badiou, Alain. Being and Event. Trans. Oliver Feltham. London: Continuum, 2005. Print.
  • ---. Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II. Trans. Alberto Toscano. London: Continuum, 2009. Print.
  • ---. “The (Re)turn of Philosophy Itself.” Conditions. Trans. Steven Corcoran. London: Continuum, 2008. 3-22. Print.
  • ---. “The Scene of Two”. Trans. Barbara P. Fulks. Lacanian Ink 21 (2003): 42-55. Web. 9 Aug. 2014.
  • ---. “What is Love?” Conditions. Trans. Steven Corcoran. London: Continuum, 2008. 179-98. Print.
  • Ender, Evelyne. “Unwrapping the Ghost: The Design Behind Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove.” A Companion to Henry James. Ed. Greg W. Zacharias. Malden: Blackwell, 2008. 156-75. Print.
  • James, Henry. The Complete Notebooks of Henry James. Ed. Leon Edel and Lyall H. Powers. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Print.
  • ---. Henry James, Selected Letters. Ed. Leon Edel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987. Print.
  • ---. The Wings of the Dove. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008. Print.
  • Ling, Alex. “Ontology.” Alain Badiou: Key Concepts. Ed. A. J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens. Durham: Acumen, 2010. 48-58. Print.
  • Rowe, John Carlos. “The Symbolization of Milly Theale: Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove.” ELH 40.1 (1973): 131-64. Print.
  • Tambling, Jeremy. Henry James. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Print.

Pure Love: Reading The Wings of the Dove with Badiou

Year 2014, Issue: 40, 65 - 74, 01.10.2014

Abstract

The Wings of the Dove, one of the greatest novels of Henry James, has been widely read to scrutinize the role of representation in realistic narrative. Here we will argue that it is dramatization, and not bare representation, which is at issue in the dynamic nature of the text. For us, James is in the pursuit of a literary mise-en-scène which would enable him to concentrate on the event of love and gradually all kinds of events in its purest form. When there is a question of determining the purest forms of events and relations in general, mathematical abstraction comes to the fore as the ultimate tool for thinking things through. French philosopher Alain Badiou creates a remarkable conceptual network to be able to present such a pure form. Inspired by James among many other artists, Badiou takes the set-theoretical terminology as a starting point and arrives at a full-blown theory of appearances where both the ontology and phenomenology of events can be worked on. Briefly, it is our aim to read James’s novel on the basis of Badiou’s abstractions and show how the characters of the novel, such as Milly, Kate and Merton, function to dramatize the conditions and effects of an event like love

References

  • Badiou, Alain. Being and Event. Trans. Oliver Feltham. London: Continuum, 2005. Print.
  • ---. Logics of Worlds: Being and Event II. Trans. Alberto Toscano. London: Continuum, 2009. Print.
  • ---. “The (Re)turn of Philosophy Itself.” Conditions. Trans. Steven Corcoran. London: Continuum, 2008. 3-22. Print.
  • ---. “The Scene of Two”. Trans. Barbara P. Fulks. Lacanian Ink 21 (2003): 42-55. Web. 9 Aug. 2014.
  • ---. “What is Love?” Conditions. Trans. Steven Corcoran. London: Continuum, 2008. 179-98. Print.
  • Ender, Evelyne. “Unwrapping the Ghost: The Design Behind Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove.” A Companion to Henry James. Ed. Greg W. Zacharias. Malden: Blackwell, 2008. 156-75. Print.
  • James, Henry. The Complete Notebooks of Henry James. Ed. Leon Edel and Lyall H. Powers. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Print.
  • ---. Henry James, Selected Letters. Ed. Leon Edel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987. Print.
  • ---. The Wings of the Dove. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008. Print.
  • Ling, Alex. “Ontology.” Alain Badiou: Key Concepts. Ed. A. J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens. Durham: Acumen, 2010. 48-58. Print.
  • Rowe, John Carlos. “The Symbolization of Milly Theale: Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove.” ELH 40.1 (1973): 131-64. Print.
  • Tambling, Jeremy. Henry James. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Print.
There are 12 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Hakan Atay

Hivren Demir-atay

Publication Date October 1, 2014
Published in Issue Year 2014 Issue: 40

Cite

MLA Atay, Hakan and Hivren Demir-atay. “Pure Love: Reading The Wings of the Dove With Badiou”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 40, 2014, pp. 65-74.

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey