Academic literature on the topic 'Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 – Nostromo'

En un tiempo en que la globalización pone en cuestión las categorías nacionales de la tradición literaria, la decisión de ciertos escritores de cambiar de lengua para escribir cobra especial importancia. Este trabajo estudia los casos de Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938), keniano que abandona el inglés para escribir en gîkûyû; Juan Rodolfo Wilcock (1919-1978), argentino que renuncia al español y escribe en italiano; y Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), polaco que escribe en inglés sobre África; interroga las transacciones del pasaje a una lengua otra y analiza la constitución de sus obras en «zonas de contacto» entre culturas.

El presente artículo plantea un elemento poco tratado en la relación de influencia de Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) sobre The Great Gatsby (1925), de Francis Scott Fitzgerald, a saber: la estructura, el desarrollo y el alcance ideológico de la metáfora de lo morboso como manifestación de la disfuncionalidad implícita en los sistemas sociales que no observan el principio de responsabilidad. El artículo presenta un marco teórico en el que se definen las líneas maestras del concepto de responsabilidad conradiano, que es análogo, como se sostiene en el artículo, al concepto de responsabilidad promovido por Friedrich Nietzsche, y mantiene diferencias cruciales con el concepto de Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). El referido marco se emplea para indagar en el campo tropológico de la enfermedad y la podredumbre en la novela de Francis Scott Fitzgerald. A modo de conclusión se abordan las diferencias entre responsabilidad social y responsabilidad individual como elemento diferenciador de los principios ideológicos que entran en conflicto en la novela.ABSTRACTThis article examines an element that has rarely been tackled by critics when discussing the influence of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) on Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), to wit: the structure, development and ideological scope of the idea of the “morbid” as representation of dysfunctional communities that do not observe the principles of responsibility. The article posits a theoretical framework that develops the main features of Conrad’s idea of responsibility, which, in turn, resembles that of Friedrich Nietzsche and deviates notably from that of Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). The said framework is then deployed in order to delve into the images of sickness and rottenness in Fitzgerald’s novel. As a conclusion, the article examines the difference between two sorts of responsibility: social and individual, for they are the main constituents of the ideological conflicts the novel features.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of food patterns as the elements of political discourse in the novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). The stereotypes of food behavior and the gastronomic symbols, associated with the revolutionary activities, appeared simultaneously with literary nihilists. In Dostoevsky’s Demons (1871-1872), the issue of accomplishing social harmony (which was discussed in polemics with T. Carlyle and J. S. Mill) is connected to metaphorical images of repast. The “culinary” episodes are quite limited; this “poverty” of gastronomic motives could be explained by the “industrial era” ideology, when a meal ceased to stay among existential foundations. The ”revolutionaries” destroying Russian traditional life are depicted as instruments of suicide or destruction. Heroes are eager for spiritual food but can only “devour each other” or be devoured; the “Idea”, which destroys individual organisms, turns entire social organisms into “porridge”. The abstract characters of feasts and the absence of any specific meal details symbolize “emptiness” of human existence. This rejection of “basic” elements of life can develop into “sacrificial” feasts with human victims. In Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent (1907; a dialogue with Dostoevsky), the revolutionary “sacrificial meal” appears through the “kitchen” metaphors and “slaughterhouse” symbols. The remains of an idiot sacrificed by new “apostles” resemble butcher’s by-products. The “secret agent” (Verloc) having satisfied hunger with meat (like Verkhovenskiy who is constantly hungry) is murdered with a kitchen knife as a sacrificial animal. Another expressive “gastronomic” trail is Conrad’s parody on stereotypical food asceticism of fighters for the Idea: fat anarchist Michaelis eats only raw carrots. Thus, in Dostoevsky’s and Conrad’s novels, important models of individual food behavior and culinary “bloody triune” metaphors are associated with nihilistic behavior and revolutionary activities. Food metaphors help writers to express their negative attitude towards the destructive activities of nihilists. The main ideas of the paper were presented at the BASEES Annual Conference 2018 (Fitzwilliam College — Churchill College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom).

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This thesis focuses on Conrad's representation of space and atmosphere in the "impressionistic" works published between 1897 and 1904, notably The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897), "Heart of Darkness" (1899), Lord Jim (1900), and Nostromo (1904). The many conflicting statements regarding the nature of Conrad's impressionism lead one to ask two fundamental questions: What constitutes this strange and elusive phenomenon, and how does it bear upon interpretation? This thesis works towards defining the elusive quality of Conrad's writing by investigating and assessing the contribution of impressionist techniques in the creation of a pervasive space and atmosphere; secondly, it considers how the various constituent elements interact with, and complement one another to form a dominant mode of fictional space in each work; and, thirdly, it indicates the possible impact that these particular Conradian configurations of space and atmosphere might have upon the interpretation of his impressionist works. The thesis argues that the existential condition of isolatio~experienced by Conrad's heroes and narrators is a consequence of epistemological frustration and fragmentation, which, in turn, is a function of impressionist ontology. There is a definite and complementary relationship between each of these notions in Conrad's fiction. The mysterious atmosphere in his works results from the interplay between various configurations of theme, narration and description, and these novelistic elements correspond roughly with the notions of existential isolation (the dominant theme), epistemology (narrating, telling and (re)telling as a method of knowing and understanding the space in which the characters find themselves) and, lastly, the ontological dimensions of the various modes of fictional space (as realized in description). The evocation and invocation of cosmic space in The Nigger of the "Narcissus," the mapping of a dorriinant symbolic space in "Heart of Darkness," the (re)constructions of Jim's psychological space in Lord Jim, and, finally, the "transcription" and "inscription" of a mythical space in Nostromo, indicate a definite development from epistemological to ontological issues. Phrased in more theoretical terms, this development is a movement from asking predominantly epistemological questions like "How can I interpret this world of which I am a part?" "What is there to be known?" "Who knows it ... and with what degree of certainty?", to asking predominantly ontological questions, such as "Which world is this?" "What kinds of worlds are there ... and how are they constituted?". Such questions, categorized by McHale as the dominant characteristics of Modernist and Postmodernist fiction respectively, are already present in Conrad's texts, thus undermining any clear-cut division between these broad categories. Indeed, this thesis suggests that these categories are at best tenuous, and that they should perhaps be used heuristically, rather than definitively

Comment le malaise dans la civilisation du jeune XXème siècle se "mi-dit-il" dans Heart of Darkness, Nostrama et Under the Volcano ? Qu'est-ce qui unit Conrad et Lowry si ce n'est leur rôle de révélateurs des brèches de l'histoire et du coeur de l'homme moderne ? La littérature et l'art ne nous en disent-ils pas plus sur la vérité enfouie sous les emplâtres des écritures réalistes, que les livres d'histoire ? Avec Conrad, les écrans fictionnels posés sur le Réel se mettent à bouger, pour finalement voter en éclats sous la plume de Lowry. Les va-et-vient entre littérature, art et psychanalyse font émerger des bribes sonores et visuelles desquelles se dégage un réseau de signifiance qui fait accroc et accroche chez le lecteur attentif. Mues par une musique souterraine, ces écritures de la modernité font sourdre jusqu'à la surface des textes, des fragments d'une langue d'avant le langage, cette "lalangue" (lacan) qui fait vibrer la corde sensible du lecteur ayant renoncé à la jouissance phallique, au profit d'une "écoute flottante" (Freud). Le lecteur, à son tour morcelé, voit alors éclater le cri muet lancé à la face des "non-dupes" (Lacan) errant au pays des lettres. L'autre qui n'existe pas fascine, et, par son absence, met en marche le désir et la créativité. Les pulsions scopiques et dévoratrices font alors voir et entendre l'importance des objets regard et voix pour l'analyse de ces écritures opaques, dont la dimension lyrique, "poéthique", se propage telle une onde de choc partie d'un noyau obscur. Le rayonnement de ces oeuvres met en évidence l'importance de l'art, et en l'occurrence, de la littérature qui fait voir, entendre et sentir des bribes de ce qui fait de nous des hommes encore "connectés" avec leurs émotions. C'est peut être vers une jouissance autre, non-phallique et réfractaire à toute pensée dogmatique ou idéologique qu'il faut errer, entre son et sens, avec bonheur. . .

" ... the central concern of this thesis, which is to investigate the ways in which Conrad uses a particular technique (that of the first-person narrator ) to focus our attention, to secure our involvement, and to direct our sympathies. At the same time I wish to examine the extent to which the central themes or concerns of each work derive from the interaction between the narrator and the man whose experience he confronts, from "the challenging interplay of two frames of reference, two schemes of values, two sets of attitudes" that the use of a dramatized narrator makes possible." (Introd., p. 5)
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This dissertation examines Conrad's ambivalent attitude to the value of words in human affairs. Though his critical attitude is the main focus of the argument, his positive attitude will also be considered in some detail. In the first chapter, on The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', the critical attitude is primary. In this story language is seen in relation to silence and action, and in both cases the non- linguistic element is celebrated, while words are censured. Yet the values implied by the tale leave the writer of fiction, and the narrator who emerges at the end of the story, in an uncertain position: the world presented in the novel undermines the mode of presentation which is the novel. This paradox is to some extent resolved in the following two chapters which deal with Conrad's complex response to the culture of European imperialism. Chapter 2, on Heart of Darkness, examines the ways in which words contribute to the systematic lies that sustain the nineteenth-century civilizing mission. The story is, however, not wholly critical of language, since the value of Marlow's spoken narrative is clearly endorsed. Chapter 3 offers a more detailed account of the relationship between the story-teller and his society, and of the value of Marlow's words. In Lord Jim, Marlow's account of Jim is contrasted with the account of him given by the court of inquiry, and with the notion of the hero projected in the romantic fictions which Jim reads. Once again Marlow's use of language is affirmed, while other uses are shown to be reductive, or simply spurious. The final chapter deals with Under Western Eyes. Of the four novels selected for this thesis, Conrad's "Russian novel" offers the most explicit and sustained critique of language. The novel suggests that any simplistic identification of language with "communication" is naive, if not misleading. In the conclusion I discuss Conrad's understanding of the nature and function of his own words, as set out in the preface to The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' and A Personal Record

Heart of Darkness, Chance, and Lord Jim can be described as philosophical works if considered in light of "ordinary language" philosophy. Conrad wrestled with skepticism much as Wittgenstein later would, but his struggle with the "bewitchment" of skeptical thinking took a narratival form. His champion was Marlow, raconteur of the three novels, who recurrently loses and recovers his words and his capacity to tell (to judge, to narrate). In these works the Marlovian investigation of human convention, linguistic and otherwise, is shown to be a necessary but perilous task. The possibility that we may be dissatisfied with the ordinary or transcendental conditions of living is dramatized in all three novels, often (but not only) by threats to marriage. Heart of Darkness demonstrates the loss of linguistic attunement that may follow upon taking human relation to be a problem of knowledge, and links this to Kurtz's world-devouring repudiation of the ordinary. Chance explores in melodramatic form the "germ of destruction at the source of our strength", and unmasks men's denial of women as one face of skepticism. Lord Jim presents skepticism, Romanticism, and fantasy as different versions of ontological dissatisfaction, and shows how a return to the ordinary requires a practice of reading and remembering (our words).

Au travers de certains concepts tragiques fondateurs définis par la "Poétique" d'Aristote, nous nous proposons d'analyser dans les oeuvres majeures de Joseph Conrad le rapport dialectique entre l'être et la lettre, fondé sur la remise en cause d'une vision esthétique classique. Notre première partie sera consacrée à une analyse du substrat esthétique classique à partir de la thématique du voyage qui symbolise le déplacement de la réalité vers la fiction, au profit du transfert que permet le mouvement métaphorique, en quête d'un surplus de sens devant déboucher sur l'aperception de l'essence. Mais les contours de l'espace esthétique classique s'estompent progressivement. Le voir et le savoir sont tenus en échec, marquant l'effondrement de l'épistémè traditionnelle, tandis que le sujet perd sa transparence et sa densité. Temps et temporalité font l'objet d'un traitement disruptif qui ruine le schéma téléologique classique. C'est en définitive l'ensemble du projet esthétique qui est radicalement réinterrogé, l'esthétique de la "représentation" laissant place à celle de la "présentation" qui marque une dé-théologisation du processus mimétique. Par delà l'effondrement du thétique toutefois, la fiction conradienne articule le passage du Savoir au Ça-voir, propre à la reconstruction tragique, qui dévoile la tragédie de notre "être-dans-les-signes". Cette littérature se fait symptôme d'une modernité qui vit un moment de repli du signe sur lui-même, déréalisant le monde vers lequel il était censé faire signe, ouvrant à l'aperception du Réel lacanien. Enfin, nous tenterons de voir comment cet effondrement ontologique mène à la reconstruction d'un "au-delà de l'être" marqué par l'émergence de l'éthique, associant processus cathartique et élaboration d'une nouvelle scène littéraire. Le renoncement au spéculaire permet le surgissement d'un nouveau mode représentatif tandis qu'un discours épuré donne au lecteur l'occasion d'éprouver "le plaisir du texte"

This thesis explores the archetypal theme of initiation in selected texts by Joseph Conrad. The Introduction first surveys critical attention to initiatory motifs in Conrad with the objective of demonstrating the need for an approach to the topic informed by a more formal and theorized understanding of initiation. It then offers a prima facie case for the centrality of the idea of initiation in Conrad's oeuvre, based on references culled from a range of the author's writings. Chapter One seeks to contextualise initiation by providing a history of anthropological research into and theorisations of the rite, proceeding to a description of its typical structure and functions. A detailed account is given of the most widely accepted model of initiation, Arnold van Gennep's tripartite schema. Moving on to Conrad's writing, Chapter Two draws on both his fiction and more personal writings in order to provide a provisional account of the writer's own understanding of initiation and its importance, and to offer some explanation of why Conrad should have been prompted to accord the motif such prominence in his work. Conrad's presentation and (impliedly) his understanding of initiation was never entirely consistent and underwent some change in the course of his writing career. The critical assessment of "Typhoon" in Chapter Three depicts Conrad's more optimistic conception of initiation as a rite benefitting both society, by promoting solidarity, and the individual, by advancing self-knowledge. Chapter Four introduces, via analyses of the novellas "Youth" and "The Shadow Line", that variation on the motif of initiation which is more typical of its manifestation in Conrad: the failure of individuals to complete their cycles of initiation. Chapter Five identifies those characteristics of initiation which appear to be determinative in the representations of incomplete initiation in Conrad's work. Initiation seems to play out approximately seven paradoxes; the impact of some of these is examined through analysis of the initiatory ordeals of the main protagonists in The Secret Agent. Integral to this discussion is an attempt to demonstrate the vital role which initiation plays in the healthy maintenance not only of social order but also of faith and life itself. The Conclusion summarises the more important findings of the study and indicates some directions for further, related research.