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Valverde, RG. 2012. The Fantastic Modernist; or Henry James’s The Turn of…
Valverde, RG. 2012. The Fantastic Modernist; or Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Revisited. ES. Revista de Filología Inglesa 33(2012), pp.97–114.
James' novella is considered as being an ambiguous merging of opposing realities, and has sparked much debate over the years.
Reading the novella on a surface level as a ghost story would mean interpreting the story as being a typical, well-crafted gothic tale of the nineteenth century. Reading the novella as a psychological exploration of a woman's unstable psyche would mean interpreting the novel as being a modernist tale focused on the darkness of psychology.
It was once believed that the genre of modernism and Gothicism could not coincide, however many have come to believe that James' novella encapsulates both.
Though the novella is indeed a ghost story, the ambiguity forces reader to question the existence of ghosts at Bly - therefor the reader is more scared of the possibility that there are ghosts rather than the actual ghosts.
Peter Quint and Miss Jessel can be viewed ontologically as the binary opposition between existence and non-existence, epistemologically as the opposition between perception and paranoia, and in hermeneutical terms as the opposition between meaning and non-meaning.
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Hesitation is considered a core theme in James' novella, and the use of ambiguity and lack of conclusions about the situation is done on purpose as a means of ascribing the tale to the classic fantastical genre of literature.
Conventional reality and supernatural reality exist side by side in the novella, thereby reshaping the traditional gothic genre.
Though the novel does not explicitly state with whom the governess is in love, her story is first and foremost presented as a love story and Douglas alludes to her affection towards the children's' uncle.
The existence of a true meaning is denied throughout the novel due to the implied existence and non-existence of the ghosts. The governess' first-person narration is what leads to the epistemological uncertainties.
So much emphasis is placed on the action of perception rather than on the nature of what is actually being perceived. The governess bases much of her identity on her role as a screen and perceiver.
The ambiguity of the tale lends itself to both arguments supporting the story as being a psychological tale and a ghost story.
The governess perceives the world as a fantastical place and, in doing so, turns her delusions into reality. Her tendency to read the world as being a romantic place is what leads to her tale being turned into a gothic tale.
Doppelganger structures throughout the novel reveal information about the interpersonal relationships between characters. Miles and Quint = Platonic Doppelganger o the uncle, the governess = Nitzschean Doppelganger of the uncle. Douglas' unrequited love for the governess mimics the governess' unrequited love for the uncle, as well as Quint's unrequited love for Jessel. Douglas and the uncle are both of higher social standing than the governess which is considered taboo in the Victorian era, Jessel is of higher social standing than Quint.
Miles and Quin represent platonic Doppelganger figures to the uncle by exercising his authority - though they weaken it over time. The governess, on the other hand, represents a Nitzschean Doppelganger of the uncle, repeating his authority in order to subvert (overthrow) it, which results in her becoming the master of her own story. However, she goes on to enforce her authority over Miles and Quint after weakening the uncle's authority over them.
It is when her imagination of a charming knight materialises into the foreboding stranger - Peter Quint - that the story dissolves into the ghost story and gothic novel that it is.
When she views herself in the mirror "from head to foot" for the fist time, it can be argued that this shock leads to a sort of identity dissociation.
Relationship between theme of self and theme of other, sexual libido = hysteria (brought on by unrealised love). Because the governess' libido is repressed, she is then subject to psychological episodes, and the taboo nature of Jessel and Quint's sexual relationship leads to their characters being demonised in the novel.
Modernism is charactersed by its interpenetration, reconciliation, coalescence, and fusion of reason and unreason, intellect and emotion, and subjective and objective.