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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... actually , a far more knowing author than Harpham portrays him to be , one more in control of his meanings , and one more deliberate and knowledgeable in his portrayal of sexuality . What I do not want to do in the pages Introduction 13.
... knowing reading of ' Il Conde ' has effectively destroyed the innocent one . And while the emergence of the knowing reading of ' Il Conde ' has not led to the same sort of divide among critics as have Freudian and neo- Freudian readings ...
... knowing way , without ever quite managing so to do . Dolan sees the tale as ' an exact analogue of the nursery rhyme tragedy of " Little Miss Muffett " . Their common theme is the fragility and impermanence of comfort and security in ...
... knowing ' reading is made public ( James's governess does not see ghosts , they are the product of her sexual frustrations ; Conrad's Count is not a saintly old man but a gay roué cruising for young men ) the tale can never again be ...
... knowing ' Conrad is not the Conrad who was familiar to readers for most of the twentieth century . Thus the second answer to the question that I posed above is one that I have already suggested : the knowing reading of ' Il Conde ' took ...
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 |