James, Arnold, 'Culture', and 'Modernity'; or, A Tale of Two Dachshunds

This article traces Henry James's long preoccupation with Matthew Arnold, suggesting that the latter's alignment of culture with nation explains James's dissatisfaction with Arnold in the late 1880s, and his return to Arnoldian themes during the First World War. The author argues that the James/Arnold relation illuminates the development of 'culture' - a key discursive field in any account of 'modernity'. Following Raymond Williams, most discussions of the 'culture and society' tradition focus on the British or European context, but this tradition had an important transatlantic dimension. James's response to Arnold nevertheless sheds light on Williams's notion of an 'interregnum' in cultural thought.