Joseph Conrad and the Modern Temper

by Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan

Overview

This study relates Conrad's work to the cultural crisis of the late nineteenth century, the post-Nietzschean phase of modernity. It discusses "faultlines"— ambiguities and apparent aesthetic ruptures— in nine of the major novels and novellas. These faultlines are diagnosed as the symptoms of an unresolved tension between Conrad's temperamental affinity with the Nietzschean outlook and his fierce ideological rejection of its ultimate implications. Presenting Conrad as a modernist at war with modernity, the author studies the perpetual tug-of-war between the artistic will to meaning and the writer's susceptibility to the modern temper, both as a theme and as a structuring principle in his work. The modes of this struggle are defined as the failure of myth, the failure of metaphysics, and the failure of textuality. This forceful and original book draws on the work of Nietzsche, Valhinger, Bakhtin, Heller, MacIntyre, and other philosophers and cultural historians to present the ethical and epistemological issues which are interwoven with Conrad's aesthetics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198117858
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/26/1991
Series:	Oxford English Monographs
Edition description:	Reprinted
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.81(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Haifa University

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
1	The Modern Temper	9
2	The Failure of Myth	22
A.	Lord Jim	34
B.	The Rescue	47
C.	Nostromo	67
3	The Failure of Metaphysics	86
A.	Heart of Darkness	91
B.	Under Western Eyes	108
C.	The Shadow-Line	127
4	The Failure of Textuality	139
A.	Chance	156
B.	Victory	172
C.	The Arrow of Gold	186
	Bibliography	201
	Index	215

Editorial Reviews

"This treatment of Conrad's ethics in the light of philosophical problems of modernism is a powerful, intelligent book."—English Literature in Transition

"Lucid and engaging....Joseph Conrad and the Modern Temper is a genuine event in Conrad scholarship, an erudite and insightful foray into Conrad's complex relationship with modernity."—Modern Fiction Studies

"This study will be particularly useful to teachers of Conrad who want to use contemporary critical theory to update the way in which they present his novels."—Nineteenth-Century Literature

Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan's study of Conrad shows a deep understanding of Conrad's fiction and comes to terms with some important thematic issues in his work. She understands that literary works are by humans, about humans, and for humans; and she writes lucidly and sensibly....Erdinast-Vulcan has written a solid, thoughtful, and commendably readable book."—Studies in the Novel

From the Publisher