"The Author of Beltraffio" as Theory

In a select number of his shorter works, including Author of Beltraffio, Figure in the Carpet, Death of the Lion, and The Aspern Papers, Henry James inquires into the epistemological status of writing.' Even if he always makes the assumption that the reflected phenomena of consciousness are writeable, he never assumes that the right language is always at hand. James explores the extent of the activity of writing and the functions and decisions involved in the act of representation, but he also investigates what happens through the act of inscription and in what this act of inscription consists.2 James' investigations into the nature of fiction, both in itself and in what it does, recursively put the representation of the world into question. To mark a beginning with an act of deferral is to put into question a whole host of topics related to the writing project, not the least of which is the very action of writing and the inscription of this act. From the beginning of Author of Beltraffio, writing is considered to be elsewhere; it is not an elsewhere that is necessarily privileged, but neither is it negligible. And the writing that is elsewhere has a certain status as previous, established textuality: in this case the masterpiece entitled Beltraffio is the cause or reason for this writing. But Beltraffio is not the only previous text: there is a letter of introduction from an American poet that the narrator delays conveying to its addressee. So there is also the poetry of this poet, which must necessarily have merit in order for the poet to be in correspondence with Mark Ambient. And the

Art · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism