ABSTRACT Unusually for Henry James, The Bostonians (1886) addresses notions of “the people,” popular movements, and socio-political reform. Foregrounding the position of women, the narrative searchingly, if ambiguously, appraises conditions in the United States of the 1870s, following the Civil War. As Olive Chancellor (a Boston feminist) and Basil Ransom (a conservative Southerner) vie for possession of the malleable orator Verena Tarrant, the text explores the failure of “union” in both its personal and political senses. The populist-feminist rally concluding the narrative highlights the prevailing challenges to democratic possibilities. Community in its traditionally cohesive guise has metamorphosed into the “inoperative community” theorized by Jean-Luc Nancy. Mutually dependent, monadic “singularities” converge in tense encounter. “Community,” according to Roberto Esposito, inevitably separates such vulnerable “singularities” from themselves and others through the play of social relationality. The novel’s democratic orientation is nonetheless sustained by its capacious form and the hospitable engagement of its readers.

中文翻译：

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亨利·詹姆斯（Henry James）的《波士顿人》中的民粹主义，特权与民主：与社区的相遇

摘要对于亨利·詹姆斯而言，《波士顿人》（1886年）非同寻常，涉及“人民”，民众运动和社会政治改革的概念。作为女性立场的叙事，如果模棱两可的话，其叙事方式会在内战之后评估1870年代美国的状况。当橄榄大臣（波士顿女权主义者）和罗勒·索森（保守的南方人）争夺可塑性演说家维雷纳·塔兰特（Verena Tarrant）的著作时，本文从个人和政治角度探讨了“工会”的失败。叙事的民粹主义女权主义集会凸显了对民主可能性的普遍挑战。以传统上具有凝聚力的幌子，社区已转变为让-卢克·南希（Jean-Luc Nancy）理论化的“无效社区”。相互依赖的单子“奇点”在紧张的相遇中交汇。“社区，根据罗伯托·埃斯波西托（Roberto Esposito）的说法，不可避免地通过社会关系的作用将这种脆弱的“奇异性”与自己和他人区分开。尽管如此，小说的民主取向仍以其宽敞的形式和读者的热情投入而得以维持。