“[A] glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai”: Conrad’s Challenge to the Narrative of Economic Success in Almayer’s Folly

Agnieszka Setecka

“[A] glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai”: Conrad’s Challenge to the Narrative of Economic Success in Almayer’s Folly

Data publikacji: 17.05.2018

Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2017, Vol. 12, s. 113 - 122

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.17.008.8665

Autorzy

Pobierz pełny tekst

PDF

drukuj

Tytuły

“[A] glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai”: Conrad’s Challenge to the Narrative of Economic Success in Almayer’s Folly

Abstrakt

The exotic setting of Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly suggests the novel’s affinity to the adventure romance, a genre popular in the final decades of the nineteenth century. However, readers expecting a story of dangerous exploits in the remote lands (or seas) must be disappointed. As Andrea White showed in Joseph Conrad and the Adventure Tradition, Conrad challenges the romance convention by contrasting a life full of adventures, which can only be glimpsed from afar, with the protagonist’s mundane existence. The aim of my paper is to take White’s argument further, and to present Conrad’s first novel not only as a challenge to the late-Victorian romance tradition but also to any narrative of (economic) success which accompanied colonial ventures. Conrad exposes both the myth of the adventurer, whose luck coupled with daring enables him to find a treasure, and the myth of a self-made man, whose perseverance and hard work in the colonies ensure his financial success.

Słowa kluczowe

Almayer’s Folly, the imperial romance, Victorian realist conventions, self-made man, colonialism

Bibliografia

Pobierz bibliografię

Armstrong, P. B., “Conrad’s Contradictory Politics: The Ontology of Society in Nostromo,” Twentieth Century Literature 1985, vol. 1(31).

Brantlinger, P., Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies, Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2009.

Bross, A., “Szaleństwo Almayera a polski spór o materialism” (transl. W. Kozak) [in:] Conrad a Polska, Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia i świat, ed. W. Krajka, Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2011, pp. 133-149.

Conrad, J., Almayer’s Folly [in:] idem, The Lingard Trilogy. Almayer’s Folly. An Outcast of the Islands and The Rescue, ed. A. Purssell, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 2016.

Hewitt, D., English Fiction of the Early Modern Period 1890-1940, London & New York: Longman, 1988.

Kennedy, V., “Conrad, Efficiency, and the Varieties of Imperialism,” Conradiana 2012, vol. 44(2-3), pp. 163-189.

Manocha, N., “The Inimitable Joseph Conrad” [in:] Critical Approaches to Joseph Conrad, ed. A. Szczeszak-Brewer, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015, pp. 95-105.

Said, E., Culture and Imperialism, London: Vintage, 1994.

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad. Volume 3. 1903-1907, ed. F. R. Karl, L. Davies, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.

Unsigned review of Almayer’s Folly [in:] Conrad. The Critical Heritage, ed. N. Sherry, London & Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973, p. 37.

Watts, C., A Preface to Conrad, London & New York: Longman, 1982.

Wells, H. G., Unsigned review of Almayer’s Folly [in:] Conrad. The Critical Heritage, ed. N. Sherry, London & Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973, p. 53.

White, A., Joseph Conrad and the Adventure Tradition: Constructing and Reconstructing the Imperial Subject, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.

Informacje

Informacje: Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2017, Vol. 12, s. 113 - 122

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.17.008.8665

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Autorzy

Agnieszka Setecka

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Publikacja: 17.05.2018

Status artykułu: Otwarte

Licencja: CC BY-NC-ND

Udział procentowy autorów:

Agnieszka Setecka (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 1397

Liczba pobrań: 872

<p>“[A] glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai”: Conrad’s Challenge to the Narrative of Economic Success in <em>Almayer’s Folly</em></p>

Pobierz xml