The heritage of Henri James’ psychological realism in his creation

The article explores the origins and mechanisms of the formation of a literary cult and the fate of legacy in the twentieth century. The article analyzes Henry James’ conscious modeling of his own life in line with the laws of literary creativity, the creation of an auto-myth, and the author considers his lifetime reputation as a literary example for other young writers. He was one of the founders of psychological realism, and the article aims to identify the distinctive features of his work, as well as to present elements of the genre of “family chronicle” of the XIX century using the example of his novels.
The article examines his approach to writing novels. The scientific novelty of the analysis lies in illustrating James’ significant contribution to the development of the theory of the novel, primarily its psychological diversity, which he skillfully captures in his novels, presenting the inner world of the individual in a detailed psychological analysis of his heroes’ existence, highlighting the role of central consciousness, which includes not only the life of the heroes but also the psychology of relationships, habits of a social nature, the underside of the soul. Thereby diverting attention from the plot of the work, the author brings readers to the state of the hero’s soul.
The article raises the question of the differentiation of approaches and ways of developing psychological realism related to America and Europe in the second half of the XIX and XX centuries. Laying a transatlantic orientation in his works, he directly imbued the events with the culture and traditions of the New and Old Worlds, revealing the confrontation of two cultures, the refraction of the destinies of representatives of different societies.