Title: The Axiology of Henry James
Subtitle: Freedom, Love, and Life
Subject Classification:  Literature and Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Humanities  
BIC Classification: DS, HP, GT
BISAC Classification: LIT004020, LIT006000, PHI001000
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Publication date: 21 Jul 2026
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-490-0
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-491-7

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Description

This book centers on Henry James's six literary works, The American, Roderick Hudson, The Golden Bowl, The Wings of the Dove, The Real Thing, and The Lesson of the Master, to explore his axiology; that is, the integration of ethics and aesthetics in the thematic matters and narrative devices to show the alignment and appropriateness between Idea and Form.

In these literary texts, the axiological integration finds expression in molding idea into form to moralize aesthetics and turning form into idea to aestheticize morality. This axiological exploration shows that the very sense of appropriateness, the harmony of techniques and specific ethical ideas in James’s works, has a significant aesthetic effect in its own right. This book will be read by students and researchers of Literature, narratologists, and scholars who are interested in interdisciplinary studies integrated with literature and philosophy.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr. Rong Liu graduated and completed her PhD thesis at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel in 2023. Following her graduation, she conducted two postdoctoral research projects on Literary Axiology at The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and at the Department of Comparative Literature of Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She has taught American Literature at the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures of Southwest University of Science and Technology in China. She will continue her Axiology research at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Reviews

"This study supplies fresh insight into the interplay between literary form and values, convincingly arguing that James’s narrative devices—including focalization, metalepsis and dramatic `showing ́ — serve as carriers of his moral vision. It gives readers hope that intricate classical fiction can still yield profound moral revelations. The work is rigorous, persuasive and illuminating for anyone exploring the intersection of narrative technique and ethical thought."
- Xiaohua Hu, Professor of English Literature, Southwest University of Science and Technology

"The Axiology of Henry James by Liu Rong is a work of ethical narratology that demonstrates the integration of the values of ethics and aesthetics in Henry James’s fiction. The book analyzes six works by Henry James in terms of the ethics of form: ethical issues are not only explored in James’s plots, characters, and authorial reflections; they are also a matter of his specific narrative techniques. In contrast to rhetorical narratology, which studies the formal features of texts as geared up to specific effects on the audience, this book focuses, mainly, on the intrinsic significance of a number of narrative techniques, showing their aesthetic appropriateness to the ethical concerns of each work. As a result of this close analysis, supplemented by interdisciplinary input, the book yields new insights into the subtlety,complexity, and sophistication of James’s texts, while also suggesting a further refinement of narratological distinctions."
- Leona Toker, author of Towards the Ethics of Form in Fiction: Narratives of Cultural Remission