ヘンリー・ジェイムズ『悲劇の詩神』 : 審美主義者ナッシュと消費社会の台頭(<特集>ヘンリー・ジェイムズ『悲劇の詩神』をめぐって-「読み」の可能性を探る-)

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This paper examines the role of an aesthete Gabriel Nash in the Tragic Muse by Henry James. James described Nash as a typical aesthete at the fin de siecle England and illustrated for us the difficult situation confronting artists during rise of mass culture. He supports Nick and Miriam in their quest to become artists. But he himself is a dilettante too pure to the concessions for the world of art. Rather he is a redeemer of art, and he tries to persuade Nick to become a portrait painter rather than a congressman. Nash aspires to see Miriam rise to the top of the artistic world surrounded by all the aspects of industrial society; photographs, interviews and 'deafening newspaperism'. But he predicts that Miriam's identity, swayed by people's capricious mind, would finally materialize as simply one of new goods towards consumerism. In the end, the disappearance of both Nash's portrait and himself symbolize the coming of mass culture and also eternity of art.
2009-03-31