Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The critical discourse: five tropes
- 2 Working on language and structure: alternative strategies in The Nigger of the “Narcissus” “Karain” and “Youth”
- 3 The mirror effect in “Heart of Darkness”
- 4 Lord Jim (I): the narrator as interpreter
- 5 Lord Jim (II): the narrator as reader
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The critical discourse: five tropes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The critical discourse: five tropes
- 2 Working on language and structure: alternative strategies in The Nigger of the “Narcissus” “Karain” and “Youth”
- 3 The mirror effect in “Heart of Darkness”
- 4 Lord Jim (I): the narrator as interpreter
- 5 Lord Jim (II): the narrator as reader
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Continuity in thought was responsible for the evolution of Conrad's art. Whenever he addressed the principles underlying his craft, he invariably returned to the formed convictions he carried into literary life. It was this constant nostos that inspired his search for more effective novel forms. Therefore, the key to understanding his artistic evolution lies in the dynamic process set in motion by his strenuous efforts to remain faithful to his personal convictions. As Conrad writes to Barrett H. Clark (May 4, 1918),
I am a man of formed character. Certain conclusions remain immovably fixed in my mind, but I am no slave to prejudices and formulas, and I shall never be. My attitude to subjects and expressions, the angles of vision, my methods of composition will, within limits, be always changing.
His “writing life … has been a time of evolution” (LL II, 204). It is precisely in Conrad's willingness to change subjects and methods that he demonstrated his fidelity to his convictions. The artistic intention which guided Conrad's artistic evolution must be understood, not by interpreting these convictions against a set of “prejudices and formulas,” but by uncovering, in his fiction, his effort to bring them to bear on the narrative and stylistic choices involved in the creative process.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Conrad's Fiction as Critical Discourse , pp. 1 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991