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 33
Page 6
... homosexual and he does not write about homosexual desire; - therefore sexuality does not play a significant role in his fiction. The second of the three views that I mention at the start of this Introduction was stated in its clearest ...
... homosexual and he does not write about homosexual desire; - therefore sexuality does not play a significant role in his fiction. The second of the three views that I mention at the start of this Introduction was stated in its clearest ...
Page 9
... homosexuality, prostitution and contraception. In his short fiction 'Falk' explicit parallels are repeatedly drawn between the need for food and the need to mate. 'He [Falk] was hungry for the girl, terribly hungry, as he had been ...
... homosexuality, prostitution and contraception. In his short fiction 'Falk' explicit parallels are repeatedly drawn between the need for food and the need to mate. 'He [Falk] was hungry for the girl, terribly hungry, as he had been ...
Page 13
... homosexual desire, escapes the vigilance of the artist searching afier the elusive mot juste, concentrating on one kind of exactitude while leaving the chaotic domain of secondary meanings to itself. What seems to be happening is that ...
... homosexual desire, escapes the vigilance of the artist searching afier the elusive mot juste, concentrating on one kind of exactitude while leaving the chaotic domain of secondary meanings to itself. What seems to be happening is that ...
Page 15
... homosexuality' is refined and fixed in the public consciousness. (As Terry Collits points out [2005, 40], Wilde began ... homosexual or homoerotic elements. My second chapter moves back chronologically to Conrad's second published novel ...
... homosexuality' is refined and fixed in the public consciousness. (As Terry Collits points out [2005, 40], Wilde began ... homosexual or homoerotic elements. My second chapter moves back chronologically to Conrad's second published novel ...
Page 16
... homosexuality in the character of Mrs Fyne, in Chance, only in passing. The treatment is worthy of note to the extent that it offers such strong evidence that Conrad was aware that lesbianism existed, which was not true of all his ...
... homosexuality in the character of Mrs Fyne, in Chance, only in passing. The treatment is worthy of note to the extent that it offers such strong evidence that Conrad was aware that lesbianism existed, which was not true of all his ...
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