TY - JOUR
TI - Emotions versus Self-knowledge in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and The Shadow-Line
AU - Kowol, Agata
TI - Emotions versus Self-knowledge in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and The Shadow-Line
AB - The aim of this paper is to examine the impact that emotions exert on the process of acquisition of self-knowledge in the case of the main protagonists of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim and his The Shadow-Line. What is characteristic of both is that the continuity of their safe established lives is disrupted by their sudden and impulsive actions, which determine their fates and consciousnesses: Jim’s fatal jump from the Patna, and a seemingly unmotivated resignation from a satisfactory job of the young Captain, respectively. Both actions seem to have been a result of the characters’ excessive self-centredeness, their mood swings, overheated imagination, self-delusion and undervalued self-estimation, which are typical of youth, a period marked by disproportionate emotionality and a necessity to take decisions which will shape one’s future life. In Conrad’s world, pursuit of self-knowledge assumes the proportions of a moral imperative of every human being. The cases of Jim and the young Captain are considered against the backdrop of Conrad’s epistemological scepticism and heroic ethics. 
VL - 2016
IS - Vol. 11
PY - 2017
SN - 1899-3028
C1 - 2084-3941
SP - 59
EP - 66
DO - 10.4467/20843941YC.16.003.6849
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/yearbook-of-conrad-studies/artykul/emotions-versus-self-knowledge-in-joseph-conrads-lord-jim-and-the-shadow-line
KW - Joseph Conrad
KW - Lord Jim
KW - The Shadow-Line
KW - emotions
KW - self-knowledge
KW - self-delusion
KW - imagination.