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Chapter 6 - Promising the Future

“The Beast in the Jungle”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2023

Stuart Burrows
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

My sixth chapter argues that if the promise is “a faculty for mastering the future as if it were the present,” as Paul Ricoeur puts it, then to remove the question of obligation from the act of promising, as James repeatedly does, transforms it into something closer to prophecy. This form of speech is at the heart of his late story “The Beast in the Jungle.” John Marcher’s belief in his own fate is a prophecy voiced by the very person it concerns. The result is a kind of rewriting of Oedipus. James’s hero, however, is not only fully responsible for the harm he does, he is blind from the very beginning.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Promising the Future
  • Stuart Burrows, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Henry James and the Promise of Fiction
  • Online publication: 26 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009419710.007
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  • Promising the Future
  • Stuart Burrows, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Henry James and the Promise of Fiction
  • Online publication: 26 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009419710.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Promising the Future
  • Stuart Burrows, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Henry James and the Promise of Fiction
  • Online publication: 26 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009419710.007
Available formats
×