Obstinate Objects: Agency as Immobility in Henry James's The Spoils of Poynton.

SPOILS of Poynton, The (Book : James); JAMES, Henry, 1843-1916; HERMENEUTICS; HARMAN, Graham; ARISTOCRACY (Social class)

This article reconsiders the representation of “things" in Henry James's fiction with a reading of his novel "The Spoils of Poynton". The aristocratic characters employ various hermeneutics to interpret and thus claim the titular spoils, the things themselves exert agency by withdrawing from these interpretations. Using Graham Harman's object-oriented realism, entities must be understood independently of their relations to humans.