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 15
... innocent' readings of Conrad's fiction, focussing initially on two test-cases, the short story '11 Conde' (1908) and the short novel or novella The Shadow-Line (1917), before moving to other works which arguably involve homosexual or ...
... innocent' readings of Conrad's fiction, focussing initially on two test-cases, the short story '11 Conde' (1908) and the short novel or novella The Shadow-Line (1917), before moving to other works which arguably involve homosexual or ...
Page 17
... innocent reader: '11 Conde' The critical history of Joseph Conrad's tale 'Il Conde' (1908) can conveniently serve to ... innocent reading of 'II Conde' and there is a more knowing one. Moreover, as in the case ofJames's celebrated story ...
... innocent reader: '11 Conde' The critical history of Joseph Conrad's tale 'Il Conde' (1908) can conveniently serve to ... innocent reading of 'II Conde' and there is a more knowing one. Moreover, as in the case ofJames's celebrated story ...
Page 18
... innocent reading is developed in certain standard ways that stress the richness and complexity of the text without challenging its (or the Count's) innocence. Thus John Howard Wills's 1955 account of the story insists upon its 'almost ...
... innocent reading is developed in certain standard ways that stress the richness and complexity of the text without challenging its (or the Count's) innocence. Thus John Howard Wills's 1955 account of the story insists upon its 'almost ...
Page 20
... innocence of childhood, unsullied by any hint of sexuality, it is odd that Dolan's comparison does not cause him to question either the Count's account of himself, or the narrator's reliability. 'Almost immediately the narrator gives us ...
... innocence of childhood, unsullied by any hint of sexuality, it is odd that Dolan's comparison does not cause him to question either the Count's account of himself, or the narrator's reliability. 'Almost immediately the narrator gives us ...
Page 21
... innocence preserved so long deserves to be preserved to the end of his life. (108) It seems that although critics of the innocent persuasion seem unable to discuss this tale without introducing ideas of Eden, innocence, and corruption ...
... innocence preserved so long deserves to be preserved to the end of his life. (108) It seems that although critics of the innocent persuasion seem unable to discuss this tale without introducing ideas of Eden, innocence, and corruption ...
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