Identity, the Self and the Levinasian Other in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim

The aim of the paper is to analyse the concepts of identity and the self in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim in relation to the thought of Emanuel Levinas. In the novel, comprehension of the other appears elusive while the search for a fixed standard of conduct, the need of which seems so burning, is often frustrated. Moreover, the external world seems malevolent, while self-knowledge is virtually unattainable. It could be claimed that only thanks to a confrontation with the Other, be it another man, the universe, or one’s own self, can man establish a sense of identity. Especially the confrontation and relation with another man, the Other who, in Levinasian terms, is never fully knowable, but for whom one is primordially responsible, helps render existence meaningful and one’s own nature more acceptable. This relation is charged with important ethical resonance, since the marine ethos proves misleading when deprived of any relation to the Other.
 

The aim of the paper is to analyse the concepts of identity and the self in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim in relation to the thought of Emanuel Levinas. In the novel, comprehension of the other appears elusive while the search for a fixed standard of conduct, the need of which seems so burning, is often frustrated. Moreover, the external world seems malevolent, while self-knowledge is virtually unattainable. It could be claimed that only thanks to a confrontation with the Other, be it another man, the universe, or one’s own self, can man establish a sense of identity. Especially the confrontation and relation with another man, the Other who, in Levinasian terms, is never fully knowable, but for whom one is primordially responsible, helps render existence meaningful and one’s own nature more acceptable. This relation is charged with important ethical resonance, since the marine ethos proves misleading when deprived of any relation to the Other.