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Document Type

Article

Abstract

The archetypal reading featured in Joseph Albrecht's article encouraged me to pursue the somewhat specialized reading I offer below. When I began my second reading of Henry James's short story "The Figure in the Carpet,” the notion of Vanity seemed to me to be very strong in the text. Midway through the first reading, I had suspected that no Figure would be given. Still, as a consequence of the standard a-priori assumption, I could not accept the frustration of closure. The construction I ultimately produced satisfied my own need for a "tight" reading. This result represents, I think, a dedicated attempt at a final assimilation of the text and also reflects a projection onto the text of some personalized schema, particularly those regarding man-made myths, their usefulness, and, above all, our obsession with them.

Publication Date

1987

Journal Title

Draftings In

Volume

2

Issue

1

First Page

12

Last Page

23

Comments

No cover/title page date shown on piece.

Copyright

©1987 by the Board of Student Publications, University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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