Literary Impressionism and Modernist Aesthetics

289 Pages·2001·0.92 MB·English

by  Jesse Matz

LITERARY
IMPRESSIONISM
AND MODERNIST
AESTHETICS
JESSE MATZ
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LITERARY IMPRESSIONISM AND
MODERNISTAESTHETICS
Jesse Matz examines the writing of such modernists as Henry
James, Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf, who used the word
‘‘impression’’ to describe what they wanted their fiction to
present. Matz redefines literary Impressionism, focusing on the
way that impressions destroy standard perceptual distinctions
between thinking and sensing, believing and suspecting. He
argues that these writers favored not immediate subjective
sense,butratheramodethatwouldmediateperceptualdistinc-
tions. Just as impressions fall somewhere between thought and
sense,Impressionistfictionoccupiesthemiddlegroundbetween
opposite ways of engaging with the world. Reconceiving Im-
pressionist fiction in these terms, this wide-ranging study ad-
dresses the problems of perception and representation that
occupiedthegreatModernistwriters.
jesse matz is Assistant Professor of English at Harvard
University. He has published articles on Walter Pater, T. E.
Hulme,E.M.Forster,andV.S.Naipaul.
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LITERARY IMPRESSIONISM
AND MODERNIST
AESTHETICS
JESSE MATZ
AssistantProfessor
DepartmentofEnglishandAmericanLiteratureandLanguage
HarvardUniversity
PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING)
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia

http://www.cambridge.org

© Jesse Matz 2001
This edition © Jesse Matz 2003

First published in printed format 2001

A catalogue record for the original printed book is available
from the British Library and from the Library of Congress
Original ISBN 0 521 80352 7 hardback

ISBN 0 511 01783 9 virtual (netLibrary Edition)
For Rose Marie Laster
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Contents
Acknowledgments page viii
Introduction Proust’sdeathlessanalogy 1
1 Impressionsofmodernity 12
2 Pater’shomoeroticimpression 53
3 Thewomanofgenius 79
‘‘CalldownDolly’’ 79
Jamesandthewomanofgenius 85
Hardy’sdefensiveimpression 120
4 Thedistantlaborer 130
ProustinEulalie’sbedroom 130
Conrad’sdistantlaborer 138
Ford’speasantcabman 155
5 Woolf’sphenomenologicalimpression 174
6 ThreeImpressionistallegories 207
Conclusion Mrs.BrownandMrs.Bell 239
Notes 250
Index 275
vii
Acknowledgments
I owe greatest thanks to two pairs of advisors: Paul Fry and Mark
Wollaeger, who supervised my dissertation; and Phil Fisher and
Helen Vendler, who gave me the advice necessary to turn the
dissertation into a book. Paul Fry inspired everything good in the
pages that follow here; indeed, every fruitful ‘‘seed’’ – to use Henry
James’s word for that from which suggestive ideas grow – turned up
in the path of conversation with him. Mark Wollaeger taught me
most of what I know about Modernism and gave me vital support
and guidance even after moving halfway across the country. Philip
Fisher was a great source of light, wisdom, and hope in the darker
days of junior scholarship, as was Helen Vendler, whose bracing
aptitudesandsolicitudeshelpedmetodecidehowandwhytowork.
I want to thank those who read drafts of the book at various
stages: Margaret Homans, David Southward, Rebecca Laroche,
Patricia Klindienst, Alexander Welsh, Tyrus Miller, David Brom-
wich, Robert Kiely, Jed Esty, Doug Mao, Bianca Calabresi, Jim
Carson, Shuchi Kapila, Jonathan Warren, Kevis Goodman, Daniel
Albright, Sophia Padnos, and, especially, Ian Duncan, whose help
wastrulyheroical.
I also want to thank those with whom I had helpful conversations:
particularly, Lawrence Buell, who helped me plan strategies, and
Lawrence Rainey, James Engell, Jonah Siegel, Tamar Katz, Tom
Otten, Margery Sokoloff, Richard Dellamora, Bob Caserio,, Ruth
Yeazell, Richard Brodhead, Matt Greenfield, Bill Jewett, Annabel
Patterson,DavidMarshall,MarcMicale,andFellowsattheWhitney
HumanitiesCenter.
I had great technical help from Diane Jowdy, Carol Forney, Jay
Boggis, Katherine O’Neil, Lara Heimert, and of course Ray Ryan,
my wonderful editor at Cambridge, Rachel de Wachter, and Linda
Woodward.
viii
Acknowledgments ix
And then,finally, the money, andthe family:withoutfinancialand
institutional support from the Whitney Humanities Center, National
Endowment for the Humanities, Harvard University, and the Hunt-
ingtonLibrary,Icouldneverhavehadtimetowrite;and withoutmy
parents, my brothers and my sister, and Jeff Bowman, I could never
havehadtheresolve.