‘One walked of course with one's eyes greatly open’ (Henry James): London Sights in Alvin Langdon Coburn, Henry James, and Joseph Pennell

Douglas Tallack

doi:10.1080/09502360903230714

Abstract

‘A city must remain open to knowing that it does not yet know what it will be’ (Jacques Derrida). ‘To suppress the appearance would be to abolish social relations’ (Etienne Balibar). For some 20 ye...

Highlights

I For some twenty years, either side of the turn of the twentieth century, dramatic population growth, perplexing forms of spatial expansion, and the international promotion of cities posed questions about how cities could be known
New disciplines and sub-disciplines, as well as institutions, were founded to come up with answers, while many artists and writers became preoccupied with facets of urban knowledge. „One walked, with one‟s eyes greatly open‟, Henry James disingenuously remarks in the Preface to The Princess Casamassima.[2]
James wrote about New York, earlier and later in his career in Washington Square (1880) and The American Scene (1907), and Venice and Florence in essays from the 1870s to 1890s collected in Italian Hours (1909)

Summary

Introduction

I For some twenty years, either side of the turn of the twentieth century, dramatic population growth, perplexing forms of spatial expansion, and the international promotion of cities posed questions about how cities could be known.

Results

Conclusion