Henry James (1843-1916), an outstanding American novelist, dramatist and critic in the 19th century, is one of the key figures of Literary Realism and one of the greatest men of letters in the English language. He is primarily known for his international novels, which tell of the encounters between Americans and Europeans to explore transatlantic cultures. The novella Daisy Miller is one of the representative works on the international theme in his early stage and also regarded by James as “the most prosperous child” of his invention. It is through the eyes of a Europeanized American youth Frederick Winterbourne that James narrates an American family’s experience in Europe, with an emphasis on their intercultural communication with Europeanized Americans.
Intercultural communication is the exchange of information between individuals from different cultures. It is not only an academic focus in various disciplines, but frequently seen in our daily life. Especially in recent years, more and more attention has been drawn to intercultural communication studies. Universal among all human beings, ethnocentrism is a block to effective intercultural communication and causes conflicts and misunderstandings between both participants in the intercultural communication. Therefore, cultural relativism is what we should adopt and an open mind to other cultures always comes in the first place.
This thesis is a cultural study on Daisy Miller through an ethnocentric analysis of the intercultural communication between Americans (Daisy and Randolph) and Europeanized Americans (Winterbourne, Mrs. Costello and Mrs. Walker), suggesting that all the characters are ethnocentric in a way, except the real European Giovanelli as a model to follow. Based on these detailed analyses, it goes on to reflections on Daisy’s death and argues that everyone has responsibility to shoulder for this tragic ending, which is to some degree enlightenment about the right way to deal with intercultural communication, that is, avoiding ethnocentrism.