Specula(riza)tion in The Golden Bowl

Selected Papers on Henry James, 1988-1990 141 his identity as an author, as similarly "provisional," as achievements best memorialized by an openness to many stories, rather than an exclusive commitment to one. The New York Edition, despite its apparently monological conception, resists any "last word," and so defines its singular value as a locus for considering die problematics and permutations of modem Uterary autiiorship and authority. Cheryl B. Torsney—Specula(riza)tion in The Golden Bowl In this paper I wiU argue that by considering Luce Irigaray's notions of the speculum, speculation, and specula(riza)tion, aU of which are concerned with reflective relationships, we enter into the peculiar economy of Henry James's The Golden Bowl. But first, some definitions. A speculum is a mirror wielded by tiie subject male to examine the object female, who then becomes the speculum herself. Speculation is die process by which women are objectified, by which they reflect male desire and thus are exchanged. Specialization is the process by which identity for women, the Other, is shaped and by which placement in the symboUc economy is dictated by men. Luce Irigaray's notion of the specular suggests the objectification of women and the method by which they are kept from the subjective; in other words, women, she asserts, are created by men as products of male speculation. On a quite literal level, Adam Verver's position as a connoisseur and a speculator impUcates Irigaresque dieory, which posits woman as the speculum, the mirror of what man wants to see in her (which involves what she herself sees); for both speculate and speculum derive from the same French root, speculare. As Irigaray writes, "just as a commodity has no mirror it can use to reflect itself, so woman serves as reflection, as image of and for man, but lacks specific qualities of her own. Her value-invested form amounts to what man inscribes in and on its matter: that is, her body" (187). Thus, as speculator extraordinaire, around whom have multiplied "representative precious objects, great ancient pictures and other works of art, fine eminent 'pieces' in gold, in stiver, in enamel, majolica, ivory, bronze" (GB 121), Adam controls not only his purchased possessions but also the women around him, namely Maggie and Charlotte, who are of value only insofar as he, Adam, the speculator, retains an interest in them as commodities. Adam organizes not merely die Oedipal transactions of the narrative, as suggested by the term speculum, but also the economic exchange, as implied by the word speculate, and he sets the standard for die otiier actors in the drama. FoUowing Adam's lead, everyone in tiie novel speculates: from the shopkeeper, who speculates on the value of the golden bowl itself for tiie different couples, to the Assinghams, who speculate on who knows what and when, to the four protagonists. AU reflect on, speculate about, the possible accrued value of what is being exchanged: information, objets d'art, persons. According to Irigaray, what woman is, the speculum, is a speculation by man of economic value, specificaUy of her exchange value, a topic Irigaray discusses in the This Sex Which Is Not One essays "Woman on the Market" and "Commodities among Themselves," where she explains, "Heterosexuality is nothing but the assignment of economic roles: there are producer subjects and agents of exchange (male) on die one hand, productive earth and commodities (female) on the other" (192). Maggie and Charlotte, object/commodities, are 142 The Henry James Review given and taken by Adam and Amerigo, subject/exchangers, in the very way Irigaray describes in "Women on the Market": As among signs, value appears only when a relationship has been established . It remains die case that the establishment of relationships cannot be accomplished by me commodities diemselves, but depends upon me operation of two exchangers. The exchange value of two signs, two commodities, two women, is a representation of die needs/desires of the consumer-exchanger subjects: in no way is it die "property" of me signs/articles/women diemselves . At tiie most, the commodities—or radier the relationships among them—are die material alibi for die desire for relations among men. (180) This...