Taking the “Organic” View
the Vertical/Horizontal Crux in Henry James's ”The American Scene”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13135/1592-4467/8801Keywords:
vertical crux, horizontal crux, organic view, Henry JamesAbstract
The four sections of The American Scene devoted to New York present the reader with a highly contrasted account of the city's urban renewal, which Henry James deeply resents. The clash between what James sees as an exasperated modernity, and the receding memory of the old town is dramatized through an insisted opposition between images of vertical and horizontal expansion used as a paradigm of the conflict that individual commercial aggressiveness is waging against a rapidly vanishing sense of social concern. James's critique of modern urban planning's subservience to interest and greed is countered by his effort to develop an organic view of the city context as a way to reestablish the preeminence of a strong social ethos.
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