About the lecture

In this module, we think about the novel What Maisie Knew by the American modernist Henry James. We begin by exploring what we mean when we talk about the ‘form’ of a modernist novel more generally, i.e. the way in which a certain story or idea is presented by the writer. We then take a closer look at the form of Henry James’ novel, focussing in particular on his masterful narrative technique which seems to reflect the consciousness of his protagonist, Maisie, whilst adopting the voice of a traditional third-person narrator.

About the lecturer

Max Saunders is Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Institute, Professor of English and Co-Director of the Centre for Life-Writing Research at King’s College London, where he teaches modern literature. He studied at the universities of Cambridge and Harvard, and was a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is the author of Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life, 2 vols. (Oxford University Press, 1996) and Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction, and the Forms of Modern Literature (Oxford University Press 2010); the editor of five volumes of Ford’s writing, including an annotated critical edition of the first volume of Ford’s Parade’s End: Some Do Not . . . (Carcanet, 2010). He has published essays on Life-writing, on Impressionism, and on a number of modern writers. He was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from 2008-10 to research the To-Day and To-Morrow book series; and in 2013 an Advanced Grant from the ERC for the Ego-Media 5-year collaborative project on Digital Life Writing.