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 18
Page 6
... 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 — and most widely influential — form by Thomas C. Moser in his 1957 study Joseph Conrad ...
... 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 — and most widely influential — form by Thomas C. Moser in his 1957 study Joseph Conrad ...
Page 13
... significant textual details that have eluded the notice of previous critics. But I believe that Conrad is, actually, a far more knowing author than Harpham portrays him to be, one more in control of his meanings, and one more deliberate ...
... significant textual details that have eluded the notice of previous critics. But I believe that Conrad is, actually, a far more knowing author than Harpham portrays him to be, one more in control of his meanings, and one more deliberate ...
Page 15
... significance for him, and I have spent some time 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 ...
... significance for him, and I have spent some time 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 ...
Page 22
... significant that both accounts make reference to the reader — Hughes's to the 'unwary reader' and Steinmann's to remarks that make 'the reader' pause. But why should Hughes and Steinmann be, apparently, the first 'wary' readers of this ...
... significant that both accounts make reference to the reader — Hughes's to the 'unwary reader' and Steinmann's to remarks that make 'the reader' pause. But why should Hughes and Steinmann be, apparently, the first 'wary' readers of this ...
Page 27
... the detective story, when certain elements that have gone before now stand out as significant, is one that is granted to the reader of 'Il Conde' once he or she is prompted to reread the story Closeted Characters and Cloistered Critics 27.
... the detective story, when certain elements that have gone before now stand out as significant, is one that is granted to the reader of 'Il Conde' once he or she is prompted to reread the story Closeted Characters and Cloistered Critics 27.
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