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book1897

What Maisie Knew

Disciplines:
literature
fiction/psychological novel

Summary

An 1897 novel by Henry James narrated from the limited perspective of a child shuttled between divorced parents and their new partners.

Core Contribution

Provided the model for perception filtered through an incompletely understanding consciousness -- the technique Nolan uses for unreliable subjective experience.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Incomprehension as revelation (Maisie's not-understanding illuminates the adults' behavior more than adult understanding would -- the child's perspective estranges the familiar)

Historical Influences

No recorded historical influences.

Intellectual Lineage

Psychological novel Realist fiction

Allied Works

Memento

Contemporaries & Peers

The Turn of the Screw

Minds Influenced

Nolan's interest in restricted subjective consciousness

Intellectual Posterity

Subjective limited narration in fiction

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