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 29
Page 12
... looking at during a revolution. The rouge and pearl powder fall off, together with that passive attitude towards the outer world which education, tradition, custom impose upon them from the earliest infancy' (234). There is also very ...
... looking at during a revolution. The rouge and pearl powder fall off, together with that passive attitude towards the outer world which education, tradition, custom impose upon them from the earliest infancy' (234). There is also very ...
Page 15
... looking at the content of newspapers to which he had access on the island at this time. I do not move through Conrad's fiction chronologically. My first chapter traces the history of what, I believe, are too 'innocent' readings of ...
... looking at the content of newspapers to which he had access on the island at this time. I do not move through Conrad's fiction chronologically. My first chapter traces the history of what, I believe, are too 'innocent' readings of ...
Page 25
... latter's address to the former 'over the celebrated Resting Hermes which we had been looking at side by side' would have been enough to awaken the suspicions of readers: as I have Closeted Characters and Cloistered Critics 25.
... latter's address to the former 'over the celebrated Resting Hermes which we had been looking at side by side' would have been enough to awaken the suspicions of readers: as I have Closeted Characters and Cloistered Critics 25.
Page 28
... looking at the statue, then we should not take at face value his claim that he is not interested in the young man who resembles this statue and who is occupying the table at which he chooses to sit. Once we start to examine the story in ...
... looking at the statue, then we should not take at face value his claim that he is not interested in the young man who resembles this statue and who is occupying the table at which he chooses to sit. Once we start to examine the story in ...
Page 31
... looking for an alternative reading the search is not long. The Count has chosen to sit at a table where a young man who attracts him is. He makes eyecontact with this man ('He looked up once, and then looked down again'). The man's ...
... looking for an alternative reading the search is not long. The Count has chosen to sit at a table where a young man who attracts him is. He makes eyecontact with this man ('He looked up once, and then looked down again'). The man's ...
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