Abstract
James's preface to The Golden Bowl presents the reader with a mirror of his consciousness. In the preface, James discusses his desire to "track" himself through the revised terms of the New York Edition, what he calls "lights of experience." He also addresses his "hunt" for the photographic frontispieces, omitting their hidden autobiographical meaning. Ultimately, however, it is the preface itself that becomes a "living" photograph of consciousness: striated with quotes and associations for the reader to track, it examines and exemplifies how reading raises ghostly images. The preface enshrines and activates the trace as a way to sustain what James calls "'connexions.'"
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