James's central intelligence and the deconstruction of character

Abstract

The central intelligence in James's novels represents the signifying intention of the text, transcending the merely psychological intention which might be ascribed to any fictional character. If the Jamesian novel is a vast and intricate system of correspondences, then it is the central intelligence that allows us to isolate from among these correspondences a sense of the possibilities of the future, as well as the need for a constant conversion of thought from static to dynamic. The preconceived plot of the Jamesian novel constrains the actual possibilities of the central intelligence as a character and reduces his function to that of commentary and exegesis; yet at the same time it provides the ideal conditions for an exercise of his intelligence in his attempt to transcend the constrictions of this very plot and for a refinement of his taste as an attrition of its overriding demands. The deconstruction of character in James's novels reveals a human possibility and turns it into a task: the development of the imagination as an instrument for understanding life.