This Saint Louis University PhD dissertation, published in 1991, surveys the criticism of The Turn Of The Screw from the novella's publication to 1980. It relates trends in The Turn Of The Screw criticism to developments in literary criticism and literary theory and discusses how the latter have been influenced by broader historical and cultural changes. In the course of this discussion other Jamesian works are analyzed. This is a valuable study for Jamesian scholars, as well as for students of literary theory - it can be seen as a study of the development of literary theory in the twentieth century with this particular literary work as a touchstone study.