Sexuality and the Erotic in the Fiction of Joseph ConradAwarded third place for The Adam Gillon Book Award in Conrad Studies 2009 The book presents a sustained critique of the interlinked (and contradictory) views that the fiction of Joseph Conrad is largely innocent of any interest in or concern with sexuality and the erotic, and that when Conrad does attempt to depict sexual desire or erotic excitement then this results in bad writing. Jeremy Hawthorn argues for a revision of the view that Conrad lacks understanding of and interest in sexuality. He argues that the comprehensiveness of Conrad's vision does not exclude a concern with the sexual and the erotic, and that this concern is not with the sexual and the erotic as separate spheres of human life, but as elements dialectically related to those matters public and political that have always been recognized as central to Conrad's fictional achievement. The book will open Conrad's fiction to readings enriched by the insights of critics and theorists associated with Gender Studies and Post-colonialism. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 12
Page 1
... Retinger — who on his own account saw Conrad as a rival for the affections of Jane Anderson. Retinger, who knew quite a lot about the whole affair, denied that there was a romance between Conrad and Jane. But he denied it in a way that ...
... Retinger — who on his own account saw Conrad as a rival for the affections of Jane Anderson. Retinger, who knew quite a lot about the whole affair, denied that there was a romance between Conrad and Jane. But he denied it in a way that ...
Page 2
... Retinger, incidentally, used a similar formulation when asked by Ian Watt whether Conrad had had any extramarital affairs. In an article written jointly with John Halvorson Watt reports that 'Retinger, though unwillingly, did finally ...
... Retinger, incidentally, used a similar formulation when asked by Ian Watt whether Conrad had had any extramarital affairs. In an article written jointly with John Halvorson Watt reports that 'Retinger, though unwillingly, did finally ...
Page 4
... Retinger, writing unlike Curle after the death of Jessie Conrad, provides a summarizing view of the Conrads' marriage that, for all that he is not the most reliable of reporters, bears a strong ring of truth. Conrad, although at time ...
... Retinger, writing unlike Curle after the death of Jessie Conrad, provides a summarizing view of the Conrads' marriage that, for all that he is not the most reliable of reporters, bears a strong ring of truth. Conrad, although at time ...
Page 10
... Retinger reports that the novelist 'never ceased to repeat that the easiest solution [to “social problems”] could be found in what he called the French system of two children per family and in birth control' (1941, 65) — a view that ...
... Retinger reports that the novelist 'never ceased to repeat that the easiest solution [to “social problems”] could be found in what he called the French system of two children per family and in birth control' (1941, 65) — a view that ...
Page 11
... Retinger, in his 1941 memoir Conrad and his Contemporaries, reports that 'Once I questioned him about the love affairs of his youth, which he must have had, and pointed out that in his writings the love motif played no fundamental part ...
... Retinger, in his 1941 memoir Conrad and his Contemporaries, reports that 'Once I questioned him about the love affairs of his youth, which he must have had, and pointed out that in his writings the love motif played no fundamental part ...
Contents
1 | |
17 | |
2 The exotic and the erotic in An Outcast of the Islands and Heart of Darkness | 61 |
3 The erotics of cruelty in A Smile of Fortune The Planter of Malata The Secret Agent Victory and Freya of the Seven Isles ... | 77 |
4 Voyeurism in The ShadowLine and Under Western Eyes | 131 |
Conclusion and? | 153 |
Notes | 159 |
Bibliography | 166 |
Index | 173 |
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Common terms and phrases
11 Conde Aissa Alice Jacobus Alice’s Almayer Arrow of Gold associated attractive Author’s Note captain captain-narrator chapter characters confirms Conrad’s fiction Count Crippen critics depicted elements erotic European exotic face feeling Felicia female femininity fictional figure final find first Freya Haldin Harpham Heart of Darkness Heemskirk heterosexual Heyst hints homosexual impotence innocent involves Islands Jacobus’s James’s Jessie Jim’s Jones Joseph Conrad knowing Lena looking Lord Jim male man’s Marlow masculine masochistic Mauritius murder narrative narrator narrator-captain Nathalie Nostromo novella obsession Outcast Oxford passage passion Planter of Malata Ransome Ransome’s Razumov reader reading relationship Renouard reports Retinger Ricardo sadism and masochism sadistic scene Schomberg Secret Agent seems sense sexual desire Shadow-Line shared ship significant Smile of Fortune sort story suggests symbolic tale teacher of languages Venus in Furs Verloc voyeurism Western Eyes Willems Willems’s Winnie woman women word World’s Classics Edition writhing writing young