“‘Terrible Traps to Memory’: National Monuments and Women in Henry James”; American Literature Research Seminar

The convenors of the American Literature Research Seminar at Oxford
invite you to attend:

Anna Despotopoulou, Associate Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,

“‘Terrible Traps to Memory’: National Monuments and Women in Henry James”

Examining the struggle between personal and collective memory expressed in James’s autobiographical and fictional writings (e.g. The American Scene, The Bostonians, and “Pandora”), this paper will focus on the ways in which his female protagonists confront the patriotism inscribed in monuments, challenging the grand narratives of nation and democracy from which they are often excluded.

Anna Despotopoulou is Associate Professor in English Literature and Culture at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is an Associate Visiting Research Fellow at the RAI in 2016-7. Her research focuses on Victorian fiction, Henry James, and women’s studies. Her most recent book is Women and the Railway, 1850-1915 (Edinburgh UP, 2015). Her work on Henry James includes articles in the Henry James Review and other journals, as well as two edited volumes: Henry James and the Supernatural (with Kimberly Reed; Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011) and Transforming Henry James (with Donatella Izzo and Anna De Biasio; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).