"The reality of absent things": The scope of the negative in The 'Portraitof a Lady'

The first paragraph of The Portrait of a Lady introduces the reader to a li nguistic world in which even the most restrictive assertion is apt to conju re up a reference to some negated or negative potentiality. This study exam ines the grammar of negativity which generates James' text in the light of psychoanalytical theories of negation. More specifically, the network of ne gations, denials and contradictions which underlies the divided portrait of Isabel Archer is explored in connection with the hypothesis of a "mortal" or "negative" narcissism intent on preserving the self from the vicissitude s of alterity.