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Where earlier commentators on Henry James’s What Maisie Knew (1897) interpreted the novel as mapping a young girl’s moral and epistemological development, such critics are now characterized as naïve and sentimental by those of recent decades who have discovered that the novel anticipates their own post-structuralist skepticism. Through the application of Donald Davidson’s contributions to epistemology and the philosophy of language, this essay aims to legitimate the earlier view of Maisie as a young girl who develops a reliable body of knowledge about her own mind, the minds of others, and the world they share, on her way to achieving a precocious and heroic independence.

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Maisie Farange as “Final Arbiter”: A Davidsonian Approach to Henry James’s What Maisie Knew

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Christopher Stuart

摘要

Where earlier commentators on Henry James’s What Maisie Knew (1897) interpreted the novel as mapping a young girl’s moral and epistemological development, such critics are now characterized as naïve and sentimental by those of recent decades who have discovered that the novel anticipates their own post-structuralist skepticism. Through the application of Donald Davidson’s contributions to epistemology and the philosophy of language, this essay aims to legitimate the earlier view of Maisie as a young girl who develops a reliable body of knowledge about her own mind, the minds of others, and the world they share, on her way to achieving a precocious and heroic independence.