Abstract
The supernatural tales explored in this book have been shown to be not about hauntings, but about the haunted.1 The protagonists are haunted by their own potential selves as being, and by the privation of that being. For Arthur Machen, such privation results from a choice to turn away from a Christological teleology, or through the will to power which seeks to create without divine causation. However, through the stories of M. R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu the protagonist of the supernatural tale is given the chance to move back towards such a teleology. In this chapter, I would like to return to the dark ‘starting point’ of Machen’s protagonists, and suggest that Henry James offers an alternative to their teleological potency.
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Imfeld, Z.L. (2016). ‘He’s there from the moment he knows somebody else is’: Haunted by Paralysis in the Stories of Henry James. In: The Victorian Ghost Story and Theology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30219-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30219-5_6
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30218-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30219-5
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