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
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Page 8
... depicts the breakup of a middle-class marriage that occurs when a wife who leaves her husband but then changes her mind and returns home is unable to prevent him from reading the letter she has left him. And yet both tales trace the ...
... depicts the breakup of a middle-class marriage that occurs when a wife who leaves her husband but then changes her mind and returns home is unable to prevent him from reading the letter she has left him. And yet both tales trace the ...
Page 10
... depicts his secret agent Adolf Verloc 'as a kind of human condom, a “mortal envelope” for protection who “exercise[s] his vocation as a protector of society” by acting as a spy amongst revolutionaries, a man who has prophylactically ...
... depicts his secret agent Adolf Verloc 'as a kind of human condom, a “mortal envelope” for protection who “exercise[s] his vocation as a protector of society” by acting as a spy amongst revolutionaries, a man who has prophylactically ...
Page 11
... depiction of, for example, Charles Gould's marital unfaithfulness with his mistress the silver mine, makes it palpable that he was familiar with the conditions that these terms describe. Conrad's novels and short stories also provide ...
... depiction of, for example, Charles Gould's marital unfaithfulness with his mistress the silver mine, makes it palpable that he was familiar with the conditions that these terms describe. Conrad's novels and short stories also provide ...
Page 13
... depicts how elements in the dream work elude the censor: by means of disguise and subterfuge. This being the case, the way to bring these concealed elements to light is to read Conrad's fiction much as Freud reads the dream — by ...
... depicts how elements in the dream work elude the censor: by means of disguise and subterfuge. This being the case, the way to bring these concealed elements to light is to read Conrad's fiction much as Freud reads the dream — by ...
Page 14
... depicted as inseparable from the cruelties and sterilities of a commercialized and commodified culture. It is with ... depiction of sexuality in Conrad's fiction. Harpham summarizes his own position as follows. I claim that a fugitive ...
... depicted as inseparable from the cruelties and sterilities of a commercialized and commodified culture. It is with ... depiction of sexuality in Conrad's fiction. Harpham summarizes his own position as follows. I claim that a fugitive ...
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