An Analysis Of The Rentier Culture In The Portrait Of A Lady---From The Perspective Of The New Economic Criticism

The characteristics of the rentier culture can be easily detected in the works of Henry James,a representative writer of the rentier class.The thesis employs the theory of new economic criticism to analyze the rentier culture represented in one of James’s most classical works,The Portrait of a Lady.By applying the two new economic critical methods:the production and the internal circulation,the thesis attempts to give a different interpretation of The Portrait of a Lady from both extratextual and intratextual aspects.The extratextual analysis of the rentier culture in The Portrait of a Lady,applying the method of production,briefly introduces the rentier culture background of the target novel’s production,reception as well as the economies of its authorship,including the origin and the development of the rentier culture,the economic experience of Henry James and the traces of the rentier culture in his fictions.It is concluded that the rentier culture is rooted in the capitalist economy,and the rentier class promotes the development of literature and art through the patronage.The patronage enables artists to get rid of the financial worries and thus gives birth to the germination of early modernism.Besides,the rentier culture also creates a refined lifestyle and a purer form of literature and art,namely,the refinement.Henry James was born in the rentier class,which greatly affected his fiction creation.He places morality above materials;his fictions are more concerned with the relation between material and freedom,morality and emotion;his writing language also presents a refined style.The extratextual analysis is similar to the new historical criticism and serves as a historical and cultural supplement to the mere study of the text.The intratextual analysis of the rentier culture in The Portrait of a Lady,applying the method of internal circulation,explores the relationship between patronage and freedom,hypocrisy and truth and desire and morality from three aspects in the novel:the patronage relationship,the embodiment of the refinement and the rational and irrational economy.It argues that,in the capitalist society where the rentier culture is rooted,inherited wealth or various forms of patronage are frail.This kind of patronage system,which is subordinate to capital,drives people to ignore the corrosive effects of money,lose the ability of sound self-judgement and fail to achieve freedom and independence both materially and spiritually.Besides,people who are eagerly seeking for the appearance of refinement are easy to be confused by illusion and neglect the truth,goodness and beauty in human nature.Finally,love,marriage and even humans under the rentier culture are fragile,subordinate to the material and can be regarded as commodities in exchange for profit.Driven by the desire for money and power,people will do something beyond the moral boundaries and lose their independence.Similar to formalist criticism,the intratextual analysis can better analyze the embodiment of the rentier culture represented in the target novel.The thesis employs the new economic criticism to explore the characteristics of the rentier culture in The Portrait of a Lady,expecting to accomplish an interdisciplinary study in literature and economics and provide more possibilities for the study of Henry James’works.