Conrad's Narrative Voice
Stylistic Aspects of His Fiction
Published on 19. January 2017
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-90-04-33982-8 (ISBN)
Description
Werner Senn's Conrad's Narrative Voice draws on the methodology of linguistic stylistics and the analysis of narrative discourse to discuss Joseph Conrad's perception of the role and the limitations of language. Tracing recurrent linguistic patterns allows Senn to demonstrate that Conrad's view of the radical indeterminacy of the world is conveyed on the most basic levels of the author's (often criticised) verbal style but permeates his work at all levels of the narrative. Detailed stylistic analysis also reveals the importance, to Conrad, of the spoken word, of oral communication. Senn argues that the narrators' compulsive efforts to make their readers see and understand reflect Conrad's ethics of human solidarity in a world he depicts as hostile, enigmatic and often senseless.
Reviews / Votes
"Much has happened in Conrad studies in the 36 years since this initial publication, but Conrad's Narrative Voice is a major work of criticism and scholarship that remains essential reading for the student of Conrad's fiction. Those who missed it on its initial publication should make sure that they take advantage of its re-issue." - Jeremy Hawthorn, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in: The Joseph Conrad Society (UK) - review, 2017"This then is a book that, for all that it was first published in 1980, can be warmly recommended to the present-day reader." - Jeremy Hawthorn, in: Joseph Conrad Society, 2017
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
522 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-33982-8 (9789004339828)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Werner Senn, Ph.D. (1972), University of Berne, was Professor of English Literature at that university from 1984 until his retirement in 2007. He has published monographs on Elizabethan drama and Joseph Conrad and numerous articles on Australian and English literature.
Content
1. Introduction
2. Vocabulary and Language of Fact
The Adjectival Style
The Adjectival Series
3. Negation, Privation, Absence
The "Negative" Adjectives: Range and Types
The Deverbal Negative Adjective in Context
Negative Elements and Series
4. Sight and Insight
Seeing
Perception and Cognition: Marlow
Epistemology and Point of View: "Typhoon"
5. Physiognomy: Eyes, Faces, Looks
Author, Narrator and Character as Physiognomists
The Language of Eyes, Faces, and Looks
6. Character Reference
Naming and Point of View
Names, Appositions, and Substitutions
7. Conjecture, Estrangement, and Distancing
The as if-Locution
Modification in First Person Narrative
Modification in Third Person Narrative
Modalization by seem and appear
8. Free Indirect Style
Forms and Functions of Free Indirect Style
Free Indirect Speech and Thought in Nostromo
9. Conclusion: Narrative Voice
Appendix: Tables
Bibliography
Index
2. Vocabulary and Language of Fact
The Adjectival Style
The Adjectival Series
3. Negation, Privation, Absence
The "Negative" Adjectives: Range and Types
The Deverbal Negative Adjective in Context
Negative Elements and Series
4. Sight and Insight
Seeing
Perception and Cognition: Marlow
Epistemology and Point of View: "Typhoon"
5. Physiognomy: Eyes, Faces, Looks
Author, Narrator and Character as Physiognomists
The Language of Eyes, Faces, and Looks
6. Character Reference
Naming and Point of View
Names, Appositions, and Substitutions
7. Conjecture, Estrangement, and Distancing
The as if-Locution
Modification in First Person Narrative
Modification in Third Person Narrative
Modalization by seem and appear
8. Free Indirect Style
Forms and Functions of Free Indirect Style
Free Indirect Speech and Thought in Nostromo
9. Conclusion: Narrative Voice
Appendix: Tables
Bibliography
Index