The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation.

Related Topics:
Novella - Henry James - 1898 - Ghost story - Opera - Film

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Due to its style, The Turn of the Screw became a favorite text of New Criticism. The reader is challenged to determine if the protagonist, a nameless governess, is reliably reporting events or instead is some kind of neurotic with an overheated imagination.

Related Topics:
New Criticism - Governess - Reliably reporting - Neurotic - Imagination

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To further muddy the waters, her written account of the experience -- a frame tale -- is being read many years later at a Christmas house party by someone who claims to have known her.

Related Topics:
Frame tale - Christmas

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The account lends itself to many different interpretations, including those by Freudian psychologists and those trying to determine who or what exactly is the nature of evil within the story. In her 1976 dissertation The Concept of Ambiguity: The Example of James, Shlomith Rimmon analyzes aspects of verbal and narrative ambiguity in this and other texts by Henry James.

Related Topics:
Freudian - Ambiguity - Henry James

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