Outposts of progress
Joseph Conrad, modernism and post-colonialism
Published on 28. February 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
266 pages
978-1-77582-081-9 (ISBN)
Description
The relationship between modernist and postcolonial literature has been theorised by critics in Britain, Europe and America since the late 1980s. For the first time, in this book these debates move to Africa.
The first international conference on the works of Joseph Conrad ever held in Africa took place in 1998, to mark the centenary of the publication of Heart of Darkness. This book draws its title from Conrad's short story, `An Outpost of Progress' which represented the responses of a European to settled European assumptions about progress and backwardness, in the light of his first-hand experience of what Europeans were doing in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The 13 essays in this collection engage directly with the ways in which Conrad's fiction explores and problematises the notion of `progress', not only at the time when he was writing but now, more than a century later.
The first international conference on the works of Joseph Conrad ever held in Africa took place in 1998, to mark the centenary of the publication of Heart of Darkness. This book draws its title from Conrad's short story, `An Outpost of Progress' which represented the responses of a European to settled European assumptions about progress and backwardness, in the light of his first-hand experience of what Europeans were doing in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The 13 essays in this collection engage directly with the ways in which Conrad's fiction explores and problematises the notion of `progress', not only at the time when he was writing but now, more than a century later.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Kenwyn
South Africa
Publishing group
Juta & Company Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-77582-081-9 (9781775820819)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Gail Fincham is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has edited, co-edited, and contributed to three collections of essays on Conrad (1996, 2002, 2003), and is a contributor to Joseph Conrad: Voice, Sequence, History, Genre (ed. Lothe, Hawthorn, Phelan, 2008). With Jeremy Hawthorn and Jakob Lothe she co-edited and contributed to Literary Landscapes: From Modernism to Postcolonialism (Palgrave, 2008), wrote the monograph The Novels of Zakes Mda in Postapartheid South Africa (UCT Press, 2011) and contributed to Each Other's Yarns: Essays on Narrative and Critical Method for Jeremy Hawthorn (Novus Press, 2012).
Jeremy Hawthorn is Emeritus Professor of Modern British Literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has published three monographs and many articles on the fiction of Joseph Conrad, and other monographs and articles on narrative and on literary theory. The 4th edition of his A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory was published in 2000, and the 6th edition of his Studying the Novel in 2010.
Jakob Lothe is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has also taught comparative literature at the universities of Bergen and Oslo. Lothe's books include Conrad's Narrative Method (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Narrative in Fiction and Film (Oxford University Press, 2000). He has edited and co-edited many volumes, including The Art of Brevity (University of South Carolina Press, 2004; paperback 2011), Literary Landscapes: From Modernism to Postcolonialism (Palgrave, 2008); Joseph Conrad (Ohio State University Press, 2008), Franz Kafka (Ohio State University Press, 2011), and After Testimony: the Ethics and Aesthetics of Holocaust Narrative for the Future (Ohio State University Press, 2012).
Jeremy Hawthorn is Emeritus Professor of Modern British Literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has published three monographs and many articles on the fiction of Joseph Conrad, and other monographs and articles on narrative and on literary theory. The 4th edition of his A Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory was published in 2000, and the 6th edition of his Studying the Novel in 2010.
Jakob Lothe is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has also taught comparative literature at the universities of Bergen and Oslo. Lothe's books include Conrad's Narrative Method (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Narrative in Fiction and Film (Oxford University Press, 2000). He has edited and co-edited many volumes, including The Art of Brevity (University of South Carolina Press, 2004; paperback 2011), Literary Landscapes: From Modernism to Postcolonialism (Palgrave, 2008); Joseph Conrad (Ohio State University Press, 2008), Franz Kafka (Ohio State University Press, 2011), and After Testimony: the Ethics and Aesthetics of Holocaust Narrative for the Future (Ohio State University Press, 2012).
Content
Preface; Introduction; Humans and animals in Conrad's 'An outpost of progress' - Kai Wiegandt; Bloody racists of 1899: Some fictional contexts for Conrad's alleged racism in heart of darkness - Andrew Glazzard; Penetrating the impenetrable in Conrad's fiction - Jeremy Hawthorn; Heart of darkness as chronotope: Conradian avatars in fiction, criticism, publishing and pedagogy - Russell West-Pavlov; At the dying of two centuries: Heart of darkness and disgrace - David Medalie; Victory music and the world of finance - Konstantin Sofianos; The paradox of progress: Far-reaching deliberations and 10 per cent loans - Robert Hampson; Heroes of the real: Conrad's epic without a cause - Josiane Paccaud-Huguet; Being elsewhere: Conrad, Malinowski, and the anxiety of storytelling - Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan; Going about: Conrad's progress in a personal record - Douglas Kerr; Duo, trio and quartette - A comparative reading of Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne's the ebb-tide and Joseph Conrad's 'An outpost of progress' - Jurgen Kramer; Irony and distance: Variants of narrative and imperialist critique in Conrad's 'An outpost of progress' - Jakob Lothe; 'Positioning' the reader in Conrad's Marlow narratives and in Ngugi's a grain of wheat - Gail Fincham; Notes on contributors.