The Men Who Knew Too Much

Susan Griffin is Justus Bier Professor of Humanities & Chair of the Department of English at the University of Louisville.Alan Nadel is William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature & Culture, University of Kentucky.

• Reading James with Hitchcock, Reading Hitchcock with James ; National Bodies ; Secrets, Lies, and "Virtuous Attachments": The Ambassadors and The 39 Steps ; Henry James and Alfred Hitchcock after the American Century: Circulation and Non-Return in The American Scene and Strangers on a Train ; Colonial Discourse and the Unheard Other in Washington Square and The Man Who Knew Too Much ; Bump: Concussive Knowledge in James and Hitchcock ; James's Birdcage/Hitchcock's Birds ; Sounds of Silence in The Wings of the Dove and Blackmail ; The Perfect Enigma ; Hands, Objects and Love in James and Hitchcock: Reading the Touch in The Golden Bowl and Notorious ; The Touch of the Real: Circumscribing Vertigo ; Specters of Respectability: Victorian Horrors in The Turn of the Screw and Psycho ; Caged Heat: Feminist Rebellion in Henry James's In the Cage and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window ; Shadows of Modernity: What Maisie Knew and Shadow of a Doubt ; Awkward Ages: James and Hitchcock In Between ; Works Cited ; Contributors ; Index

The Men Who Knew Too Much offers a series of inspiring discussions about the process of adaptation as experienced by Hitchcock, James, and their respective protagonists. Combining close textual analysis with suggestive theoretical insights, the book shows how individuals in different socio-historical contexts negotiate important issue of gender, social identity, knowledge and authority. By reflecting on their struggles, we might learn something about ourselves and our future courses of action.