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Joseph Conrad's The End of the Tether: Les jeux sont faits

Publication date: 08.05.2017

Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2016, Vol. 11, pp. 67-73

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.16.004.6850

Authors

Majda Šavle
University of Primorska in Slovenia
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Titles

Joseph Conrad's The End of the Tether: Les jeux sont faits

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to call attention to Conrad’s rhetoric/spirit of play in his sea story The End of the Tether (1902). In my opinion, the games played by the characters of the narrative―above all Captain Whalley and the chief engineer Massy―belong among the four categories of games defined by a French sociologist Roger Caillois as: agôn, alea, mimicry, and ilinx. How good or bad the players are is a matter of the reader’s perception of Conrad’s fiction.
 

References

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Assadi, Jamal. Acting, Rhetoric & Interpretation in Selected Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald & Saul Bellow. New York: Peter LangPublishing, 2006.

Caillois, Roger. Man, Play and Games. Chicago: UniversityofIllinois Press, 2001.

Caillois, Roger. “The Definition of Play and the Classification of Games.” The Game Designer Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Eds. Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006. 122-155.

Conrad, Joseph. “Heart of Darkness” & Other Stories. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1999. 107-219.

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens.A Study of the Play Element in Culture.Boston: Beacon, 1955.

Jadad, Alejandro R. Unlearning.Incomplete Musings on the Game of Life and the Illusions That Keep Us Playing. Foresight Links Press, 2008.

McGrath, Patrick. “Conrad’s The End of the Tether.” The Conradian 32. 1 (2004): 43-46.

Messenger, Christian. Sport and the Spirit of Play in Contemporary American Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.

Nüstedt, Holger. “Joseph Conrad’s The End of the Tether: An Old Man’s (Rite of) Passage.” EESE 1998. Web. 15 July 2015.

Oriard, Michael. Sporting with the Gods:The Rhetoric of Play and Game in American Culture.New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Wiley, Paul L. “Conrad’s Solitaries.” [In:]A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Marvin Mudrick. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966. 63-73.

Information

Information: Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2016, Vol. 11, pp. 67-73

Article type: Original article

Authors

University of Primorska in Slovenia

Published at: 08.05.2017

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Majda Šavle (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English