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
Page 2
... suggest that he suffered from a radically lowered sexual potency or sexual desire. Retinger, incidentally, used a similar formulation when asked by Ian Watt whether Conrad had had any extramarital affairs. In an article written jointly ...
... suggest that he suffered from a radically lowered sexual potency or sexual desire. Retinger, incidentally, used a similar formulation when asked by Ian Watt whether Conrad had had any extramarital affairs. In an article written jointly ...
Page 5
... suggest that the picture of the author as a repressed Victorian unable to be open about sexuality and the erotic does not square with the evidence. In the light of the evidence from Jessie's two memoirs of her husband, from Conrad's ...
... suggest that the picture of the author as a repressed Victorian unable to be open about sexuality and the erotic does not square with the evidence. In the light of the evidence from Jessie's two memoirs of her husband, from Conrad's ...
Page 7
... suggests between the erotic and the exercise of patriarchal power. A concern with the erotic does not, of course, depend on use of the word. Both in his lifetime and after his death, Conrad, as Susan Jones points out in her Conrad and ...
... suggests between the erotic and the exercise of patriarchal power. A concern with the erotic does not, of course, depend on use of the word. Both in his lifetime and after his death, Conrad, as Susan Jones points out in her Conrad and ...
Page 9
... suggesting that primitive desires for food and for a mate exist in more 'mature' and 'discriminating' forms in ourselves. In his own fiction Conrad repeatedly traces examples taken from this infinite gradation in the shades and flavour ...
... suggesting that primitive desires for food and for a mate exist in more 'mature' and 'discriminating' forms in ourselves. In his own fiction Conrad repeatedly traces examples taken from this infinite gradation in the shades and flavour ...
Page 12
... suggest that although he would not have used the terms of modern theory, Conrad was very well aware of the distinction between sex and gender. In Nostromo, Martin Decoud writes to his sister that '[t]he women of our country are worth ...
... suggest that although he would not have used the terms of modern theory, Conrad was very well aware of the distinction between sex and gender. In Nostromo, Martin Decoud writes to his sister that '[t]he women of our country are worth ...
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