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 55
Page 5
... story against the mock-modesty of my sex. I always laughed because he invariably concluded with one about the tactful plumber who, finding himself in a bathroom in which a lady was taking her bath, had the presence of mind to retire ...
... story against the mock-modesty of my sex. I always laughed because he invariably concluded with one about the tactful plumber who, finding himself in a bathroom in which a lady was taking her bath, had the presence of mind to retire ...
Page 7
... story of female sexuality and male impotence' (98). Once again we can note the revealing presence of a central contradiction in the case being made. That critics still engage with Moser's thesis says something about its importance, but ...
... story of female sexuality and male impotence' (98). Once again we can note the revealing presence of a central contradiction in the case being made. That critics still engage with Moser's thesis says something about its importance, but ...
Page 8
... story 'The Informer' is a political work, whereas the rather longer work 'The Return' is not. The former details the infiltration of a group of anarchists by a police spy, while the latter depicts the breakup of a middle-class marriage ...
... story 'The Informer' is a political work, whereas the rather longer work 'The Return' is not. The former details the infiltration of a group of anarchists by a police spy, while the latter depicts the breakup of a middle-class marriage ...
Page 11
... stories also provide ample evidence that he understood what sexual passion was, and what it felt like to the man or woman in its grip, although Conrad the man seems to have been unwilling to talk about this. Josef Retinger, in his 1941 ...
... stories also provide ample evidence that he understood what sexual passion was, and what it felt like to the man or woman in its grip, although Conrad the man seems to have been unwilling to talk about this. Josef Retinger, in his 1941 ...
Page 12
... story and are often in the grip of an obsession that involves the daughter (267). Meyer presents us with some telling mathematics: out of '31 stories [...] the protagonist is emotionally involved with a woman in 25; in 17 of these he ...
... story and are often in the grip of an obsession that involves the daughter (267). Meyer presents us with some telling mathematics: out of '31 stories [...] the protagonist is emotionally involved with a woman in 25; in 17 of these he ...
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