The Dilemma Of An Exile

With the upsurge of the globalization, diasporic writing has become one of the popular fields in the literary circle in recent decades. Consequently, the study of diasporic literature has aroused the attention of many scholars and theorists both from home and abroad. Edward Said, a postcolonial critic and a typical diasporic intellectual, whose exilic experience provided him with the foundation to develop his theory, wrote in his collection of essays Reflections on Exile and Other Essays: an exile is likely to exist in a median state, in which he can neither be assimilated into the new surrounding nor fully disencumbered of the old. People feel that he (a diasporic writer) is assimilated into their surroundings, whereas an exile is always out of place.Henry James, who was born in America, is a representative diasporic writer in his time. Throughout his life, he traveled through Europe and at last settled in England. On the one hand, crossing the border prevented him from seeing things in isolation and equipped James with double perspectives. On the other hand, the isolation from the two continents (his homeland and the places where he visited) made him actually feel homeless. He was unable to be at home in any country. However, thanks to his exilic experience, James created his famous "international novels", which depict the confrontations between American and European cultures.Based on Said's theory on exile, this thesis will focus on the exploration of James's dilemma caused by his exilic experiences and reflected in his diasporic writings.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. In the second chapter, a brief survey has been done on James's exilic career, from which the impact of James's exilic experience on his diasporic writings is examined. In this part, in order to find out the fountainhead of Henry James's world view and formation of his ideas for the writings, the author of the present paper tries to employ Said's theories on exile. In the third chapter, through detailed analyses of Henry James's three important works—The American, The Portrait of a Lady and The American Scene, the thesis explores James's dilemma in his diasporic writing in different periods. James's own attitudes toward American and European cultures are partly revealed through the protagonists in these works. In chapter four, through examining Henry James's work The Art of Fiction, the thesis maintains that the characters are usually the reflections of reality, and a substantial part of the author's self. In other words, Henry James's dilemma was partly revealed through his characters. Chapter five aims at summarizing the thesis and highlighting the significance of the present research.The study of diasporic literature has become a hot subject for literary criticism in recent decades. Critics have mainly studied contemporary ethnic writings by immigrant writers in the western countries; few have examined the writings by western exilic writers in the history. Consequently, this thesis is obvious in its originality. By examining Henry James's works from the perspective of exilic criticism, the author of the present thesis hopes to get a new understanding of his exilic life and his works, thus provides a new angle for readers to appreciate his works.