The Work of Being Worked (For): Intimacy, Knowledge, and Emotional Labor in the Works of Henry James
Abstract
Henry James’s novels operate within a vibrant social economy, as “the working and
the worked were in London, as one might explain, the parties to every relation” (The
Wings of the Dove 201). James’s later works illustrate that the impulses belying interpersonal
connections – even the wish to be “authentic” with others – manifest in relationships
that are both intimate and transactional. My thesis explores the ways in which characters
operate with, around, and through the management of feeling or emotional labor, and
how emotional labor can be a source of intimacy and knowledge for those involved in
its performance. I define emotional labor as the deliberate and affirmative practice
by which people employ their feelings to leverage social interactions, acquire knowledge,
and navigate structures of power. The web of transactions depicted in James’s novels
have become “workable” for me in the context of emotional labor, providing the tools
to consider the complex questions that arise from James’s texts. What do lovers do
to each other and to those around them in the service of making their relationship
socially and economically viable? How does a service worker assist her customers in
a manner that both facilitates the operation of a capitalist system and performs an
act of resistance? What are the costs of emotional labor for those who perform it?
Tracing the performances of emotional labor within a text allows me to begin to answer
these questions and explore how knowledge, power, and intimacy function in both James’s
texts and society at large.
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
EnglishPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16744Citation
Bunce, Lauren (2018). The Work of Being Worked (For): Intimacy, Knowledge, and Emotional Labor in the Works
of Henry James. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16744.Collections
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