Understanding James, Understanding Modernism

Psychologist, philosopher, teacher, writer-William James stood closer than any other thinker to the center of the confluence of intellectual and artistic forces that defined the culture of modernism. The outstanding feature of this volume lies in its intent to investigate James's influence on both American and International Modernism. It provides, on the one hand, a multifaceted introduction to students of history, philosophy, and culture, and on the other, a compendium of some of the most up-to-date thinking on this central figure.

James's first book, Principles of Psychology (1890) immediately established James as the leading psychologist of his time, at a moment in history when psychology seemed to offer the promise of finding some definitive answers to eternal philosophical conundra. James's innovations would register a clear effect on much modernist art, most evidently in the stylistic prose experiments of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and their imitators. James's tentative skepticism concerning the concept of consciousness as such, and the post-Cartesian ego that was its foundation, also anticipates the questioning of the subject that would be the theme of much modern, and indeed postmodern thought.

The contributors to this volume explore James's most essential texts as well as his influence on contemporary writers, artists, and thinkers. The final section is a glossary of James's key terms, with entries written by leading experts.

Series Preface
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Unstiffening All Our Theories: William James and the Culture of Modernism
David H. Evans, Dalhousie University, Canada

Part 1: Conceptualizing James
1 The Character of Consciousness
Owen Flanagan and Heather Wallace, Duke University, USA
2 Redeeming the Wild Universe: William James's Will to Believe
John J. Stuhr, Emory University, USA
3 The Psychology of Religion: William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience
Michael Bacon, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
4 The Human Contribution: James and Modernity in Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth
Alan Malachowski, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
5 “Ever Not Quite!”: William James's A Pluralistic Universe
Barry Allen, McMaster University, Canada
6 James's Radical Empiricism
James Campbell, University of Toledo, USA

Part 2: James and Modernist Culture
7 James and Bergson: Fighting the Beast Intellectualism with Metaphors
Rosa Slegers, Babson College, USA
8 William James, Henry James and the Turn Toward Modernism
Jill Kress Karn, Villanova University, USA
9 “Never Reject Anything. Nothing Has Been Proved”: William James and Gertrude Stein on Time and Language
David H. Evans, Dalhousie University, Canada
10 The Varieties of Robert Frost's Religious Experience
Mark Richardson, Doshisha University, Japan
11 Notes Toward the Specious Present: James and Stevens
Kristen Case, University of Maine at Farmington, USA
12 Modernist Figures and James's Pluralistic Universe
Patricia Rae, Queen's University, Canada
13 William James's Stream of Consciousness and the River of the Unconscious in Joyce and Proust
Gian Balsamo, Stanford University, USA
14 “That skilful but slow-moving arranger”: Habit in James and Proust
Lisi Schoenbach, University of Tennessee, USA
15 William James and Italian Pragmatism
Giovanni Maddalena, University of Molise, Italy, and Michela Bella, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy
16 James's Pluralism and the Problems of Modern Political and Social Thought
Robert Danisch, University of Waterloo, Canada

Part 3: Glossary
17 James on Chance and Indeterminacy
Kyle Bromhall, University of Guelph, Canada
18 James on Habit
Lisi Schoenbach, University of Tennessee, USA
19 James on Morality
David Rondel, University of Nevada, USA
20 James on Philosophical Temperaments
Tom Donaldson
21 James on Pluralism
Susan Dieleman, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
22 James on Pragmatism
Colin Koopman, University of Oregon, USA
23 James on Psychical Phenomena
Ermine Algaier IV, Harvard University, USA
24 James on Pure Experience
Joel Krueger, University of Exeter, UK
25 James on Radical Empiricism
Loren Goldman, University of Pennslyvania, USA
26 James on the Reinstatement of the Vague
Rosa Slegers, Babson College, USA
27 James on Religious Experience
Michael Bacon, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
28 James on the Stream of Thought
Alexis Dianda, The New School, USA
29 James on Time and the Specious Present
David H. Evans, Dalhousie University, Canada
30 James on the Will to Believe
Mark Richardson, Doshisha University, Japan

Notes on Contributors
Index

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