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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... 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 with John Halvorson Watt reports that ...
... desire ; therefore sexuality does not play a significant rôle 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 ...
... desire for Hermann's niece imposes itself on him and will not be restrained by social taboo or cultural convention . But Conrad is careful to make it clear that what Falk experiences for the girl is not mere sexual desire , not just ...
... sexual desire does not play a key rôle in the development of its plot , whether this desire is overt and recognized by the person who experiences it , as for example with the triangle of Taminah , Nina and Dain Maroola in Almayer's ...
... desire flash intermittently along wires designed primarily to carry other messages . The unmentioned subject , sexual desire , and especially homosexual desire , escapes the vigilance of the artist searching after the elusive mot juste ...
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 |