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Post-American James and the Question of Scale
- The Henry James Review
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 24, Number 3, Fall 2003
- pp. 233-243
- 10.1353/hjr.2003.0026
- Article
- Additional Information
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The American Scene and "The Jolly Corner" explore a question that has become increasingly important to both literary critics and cultural geographers: the rescaling of one's field of experience or analysis. James's writings on America describe a crisis of spatial scale brought about by increased urbanization, immigration, and international commerce following the Civil War. Architectural monstrosities, foreign "aliens," and economic growth all threaten his sense of proportion; but at times James foregoes his complaints about the country's inordinate scale in order to imagine a literature that could do it justice.