Confronting empty spaces: between interpretation and experience in "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James

Abstract

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has inspired the most various critical debates for over a century. What is hidden in the folds of the story? What kind of impact does it have on the reader? Like a borderless nebula who attracts and reflects light from other stars, this novella is permeated by a vide fascinant, by a chaotic and disturbing matter “such stuff as dreams are made”. This feeling of absence and uncertainty, that characterizes the story, developed trough the contribution of readers and critics and it found a further still precious echo in The Innocents, a film directed by Jack Clayton in 1961.