Henry James and the Opposite of Innocence

Abstract

Abstract: The word "innocence" is ubiquitous in James scholarship, especially in studies of his late novels. But the word operates in two semantic realms: an epistemological one (where its counterpart is knowledge) and a moral one (where its counterpart is guilt). Even as critics recognize the importance of "innocence" to James, however, the tension between these two meanings of the word has not been seriously explored. I argue that James increasingly exploits the polysemy of "innocence," drawing the two meanings together as characters like Lambert Strether and Fanny Assingham try to prevent immorality by keeping themselves ignorant of it.