Joseph Conrad and the Reader

Joseph Conrad and the Reader

Also By Amar Acheraïou RETHINKING POSTCOLONIALISM: Colonialist Discourse in Modern Literatures and the Legacy of Classical Writers

Joseph Conrad and the Reader Questioning Modern Theories of Narrative and Readership Amar Acheraïou

Amar Acheraïou 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22811-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-30997-9 ISBN 978-0-230-25083-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230250833 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

For Laetitia and Louise

This page intentionally left blank

Contents List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements ix x Introduction 1 Part I Theoretical Perspectives 1 Conrad s Conception of Authorship: Probing the Implications and Limits of the Death-of-the-Author Theory 11 Part II Reception Theory: Reading as a Cultural and Ideological Construct 2 Polish Responses: Art and the Ethics of Collectivity 25 3 British Reception: Englishness and the Act of Reading 49 Part III Aesthetic Ramifications, Narrative Entanglements, and Fictional Readers 4 Conrad s Visual Aesthetics: Classical and Modern Connections 69 5 A Cartography of Conrad s Fictional Readers: Reading Hierarchy in Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Victory 94 6 Narrative Solidarity and Competition for Truth and Signification 110 7 Conrad and the Construction of the Reader: Tension between Democratic Vision and Aristocratic Leaning 123 8 Narrative Self-Consciousness and the Act of Reading: Examining Under Western Eyes through the Lens of the Poetics of Fielding, Sterne, and Diderot 143 8.1 Fielding, Sterne, and Diderot: literary novelty, verisimilitude, and truth 143 8.2 Fielding, Sterne, Diderot, and Conrad: moral and aesthetic didacticism 150 vii

viii Contents 8.3 Dramatic impulse in Under Western Eyes: text as stage, reader as active spectator 161 8.4 Narrative shock tactics: the ethics of negativity and the role of the reader 167 Conclusion 185 Notes 193 References 214 Index of Names and Titles 223 Index of Concepts 227

List of Abbreviations AF Joseph Conrad, Almayer s Folly (Dent: 1949) AG Joseph Conrad, The Arrow of Gold (Dent: 1947) Amy Joseph Conrad, Amy Foster (in Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, Oxford World s Classics: 1998) C Joseph Conrad, Chance (Oxford World s Classics: 1988) CL Joseph Conrad, Collected Letters, Vols 1 9, eds Frederick Karl and Laurence Davies (Cambridge University Press: 1983 2007) HD Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Oxford World s Classics: 1998) JA Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews (Random House: 1939) JF Denis Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist, trans. David Coward (Oxford World s Classics: 1999) K Joseph Conrad, Karain: A Memory (in Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, Oxford World s Classics: 1998) LJ Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (Oxford World s Classics: 2000) MS Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea (Oxford World s Classics: 1988) N Joseph Conrad, Nostromo (Oxford World s Classics: 2007) NLL Joseph Conrad, Notes on Life and Letters (Dent: 1949) NN Joseph Conrad, The Nigger of the Narcissus (Dent: 1950) OP Joseph Conrad, An Outpost of Progress (in Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, Oxford World s Classics: 1998) PR Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record (Cambridge University Press: 2008) PRR Joseph Conrad, Prince Roman (in The Lagoon and Other Stories, Oxford World s Classics: 1997) SA Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Oxford World s Classics: 2004) T Joseph Conrad, Typhoon and Other Tales (Oxford World s Classics: 2002) TJ Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (Oxford World s Classics: 1996) TS Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman (Random House: 1940) UWE Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (Oxford World s Classics: 2003) V Joseph Conrad, Victory (Oxford World s Classics: 2004) Y Joseph Conrad, Youth (in Heart of Darkness and Other Tales, Oxford World s Classics: 1998) ix

Acknowledgements While writing this book, I have benefited from the help and encouragement of many people. I most sincerely thank the following friends and fellow Conradians who have been supportive in various ways: John Stape, Keith Carabine, Don Rude, Wiesław Krajka, John Crompton, Jonathan Hart, Todd Bender, Nikolaos Panagopoulos, and Alexia Hannis. I am grateful as well to Cedric Watts and Deborah Romanick Baldwin for sending me copies of the papers they presented at the 2008 Joseph Conrad Society Conference (UK), respectively entitled Simple Ideas in Conrad s World? The Case of Prince Roman and Under Western Eyes: the Haunted Haunts. I would also like to express my gratitude to the editors of The Conradian and Conradiana for their permission to use overhauled material from two recently published essays: Floating Words: Sea as Metaphor of Style in Typhoon (The Conradian 2004) and Colonial Encounters and Cultural Contests: Confrontation of Orientalist and Occidentalist Discourses in Karain: A Memory (Conradiana 2007). Last but not least, I tenderly thank my wife, Laetitia for her unwavering support. I am deeply grateful for her warm affection, commitment, and valuable criticism which made this project possible. My five-year-old daughter Louise deserves also special thanks; she has the knack of gently reminding me that weekends are not for writing. x