Sexuality and the Erotic in the Fiction of Joseph Conrad

Jeremy Hawthorn

• Editore: Continuum
• Anno: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781441135094
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Literatur
• Categoria: Literaturkritik

Awarded third place forThe Adam Gillon Book Award in Conrad Studies 2009
The book presents a sustained critique of the interlinked (and contradictory) views thatthe fiction of Joseph Conrad is largely innocent of any interest in or concern with sexuality and the erotic, and that when Conrad does attempt to depict sexual desire or erotic excitement then this results in bad writing. Jeremy Hawthorn argues for a revision of the view that Conrad lacksunderstanding of and interest in sexuality.He argues thatthe comprehensiveness of Conrad's vision does not exclude a concern with the sexual and the erotic, and that this concern is not with the sexual and the erotic as separate spheres of human life, but as elements dialectically related to those matters public and political that have always been recognized as central to Conrad's fictional achievement. The book will open Conrad's fiction to readings enriched by the insights of critics and theorists associated with Gender Studies and Post-colonialism.