This study examines the significance of sounds and silence in Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (1902). The importance of visual effects has repeatedly been analyzed and therefore, it is high time to explore the text from an auditory perspective. By comparing and contrasting Victorian city sounds to sounds in the wilderness, I show that the urban and rural worlds have a great deal in common. Furthermore, by deconstructing the seemingly stable binary opposition of sound and silence as well as that of civilization and wilderness, it becomes evident that they are related and depend on one another. This paper also examines noise and how it is used as a means of power. Moreover, it deals with Thomas Edison’s invention, the phonograph, as an implicit discursive device in the text. In conclusion, it is argued that the sonic environment is of high significance and should therefore not be ignored and readers must try to close their eyes in order to hear what is said.

This thesis is premised on the notion, drawn mainly from a postcolonial perspective (which is subsumed under the poststructuralist as well as the postmodern), that Conrad's early writing reflects his abiding concern with how people construct their identities vis-a-vis the other/Other in contact zones on the periphery of empire far from the reach of social, racial and national identities that sustain them at home. It sets out to explore the problematic of race, culture, gender and identity in a selection of the writer's early works set mainly, but not exclusively, in the East, using the theoretical perspective of postcoloniality as a point of entry, nuanced by the configurations of spatiality which are factored into discourses about the other/Other. Predicated mainly on the theoretical constructs about culture and identity espoused by Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Stuart Hall, this study proposes the idea of an in between "third space" for the interrogation of identity in Conrad's work. This postcolonial space, the central contribution of this thesis, frees his writings from the stranglehold of the Manichean paradigm in terms of which alterity or otherness is perceived. Based on the hypothesis that identities are never fixed but constantly in a state of performance, this project underwrites postcoloniality as a viable theoretical mode of intervention in Conrad's early works. The writer's early oeuvre yields richly to the contingency of our times in the early twenty-first century as issues of race, gender and identity remain contested terrain. This study adopts the position that Conrad stood both inside and outside Victorian cultural and ethical space, developing an ambivalent mode of representation which recuperated and simultaneously subverted the entrenched prejudices of his age. Conceived proleptically, the characters of Conrad's early phase, traditionally dismissed as those of an apprentice writer, pose a constant challenge to how we view alterity in our everyday lives. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

This thesis is premised on the notion, drawn mainly from a postcolonial perspective (which is subsumed under the poststructuralist as well as the postmodern), that Conrad's early writing reflects his abiding concern with how people construct their identities vis-a-vis the other/Other in contact zones on the periphery of empire far from the reach of social, racial and national identities that sustain them at home. It sets out to explore the problematic of race, culture, gender and identity in a selection of the writer's early works set mainly, but not exclusively, in the East, using the theoretical perspective of postcoloniality as a point of entry, nuanced by the configurations of spatiality which are factored into discourses about the other/Other. Predicated mainly on the theoretical constructs about culture and identity espoused by Homi Bhabha, Edward Said and Stuart Hall, this study proposes the idea of an in between "third space" for the interrogation of identity in Conrad's work. This postcolonial space, the central contribution of this thesis, frees his writings from the stranglehold of the Manichean paradigm in terms of which alterity or otherness is perceived. Based on the hypothesis that identities are never fixed but constantly in a state of performance, this project underwrites postcoloniality as a viable theoretical mode of intervention in Conrad's early works. The writer's early oeuvre yields richly to the contingency of our times in the early twenty-first century as issues of race, gender and identity remain contested terrain. This study adopts the position that Conrad stood both inside and outside Victorian cultural and ethical space, developing an ambivalent mode of representation which recuperated and simultaneously subverted the entrenched prejudices of his age. Conceived proleptically, the characters of Conrad's early phase, traditionally dismissed as those of an apprentice writer, pose a constant challenge to how we view alterity in our everyday lives. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Summary This essay examines how Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and Hunter S. Thompson's novel The Rum Diary portray´s the effects of colonialism and neocolonialism in Africa and Puerto Rico. Using postcolonial theory, the essay shows how Conrad's and Thompson´s complex images of the Europeans and Africans, Westerners and Puertoricans stand in contrast to orientalistic and racist images of the colonial natives. The thesis discusses responsibility and guiltissues in the colonial states and analyses how Conrad and Thompson raise questions about these topics when they chose to portray the suffering among the colonial natives. Furthermore, the essay discusses how Conrad's and Thompson's many images of violence can be seen as images of a brutal reality carried out in countries marked by colonialism. Based on intertextual literary theory, and in the light of the literary journalistic genre ""new journalism"", in which Thompson was active, the essay markes out The Rum Diary's intertextual references to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The essay argue that The Rum Diary's intertextual references to Heart of Darkness indicate to the reader that the novel belongs to a certain genre, and by this; link the novel to a literary system, codes and traditions already constructed by Conrad. The Rum Diay, that portrays the neocolonial era in the 1950's in the former U.S's colony Puerto Rico, is therefore to be understood in the light of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, even though it portrays an earlier era of colonialism. / Sammanfattning Sammanfattningsvis behandlar uppsatsen skildringar av kolonialismens och neokolonialismens verkningar i Joseph Conrads novell Heart of Darkness och i Hunter S. Thompsons roman The Rum Diary. Med utgångspunkt i den postkoloniala litteraturteorin och mot bakgrund av den historiska bilden av den koloniala världen granskar uppsatsen bland annat hur Conrad och Thompson valde att skildra kolonialistiska och neokolonialistiska maktstrukturer och samhälleliga missförhållanden. Uppsatsen granskar även kolonialismens orientalistiska och rasistiska bild av utomeuropén kontrasterat de respektive verkens komplexa skildringar av européer och afrikaner, västerlänningar och puertoricaner. Uppsatsen berör även frågan om västvärldens ansvar och skuld inför koloniernas och de forna koloniernas inhemska problematik samt belyser Conrad och Thompson framställningar av lokalbefolkningens lidanden. Vidare granskar uppsatsen våldets betydelse för kolonialismens etablering och hur de respektive verkens våldsskildringar kan ses berätta om en våldspräglad realitet i de länder som är märkta av kolonialismens verkningar. Uppsatsen belyser också The Rum Diarys litterära beröringspunkter och direkta referenser till Conrads Heart of Darkness med utgångspunkt i den intertextuella litteraturteorin och mot bakgrund av den litterära journalistiska genren ”"new journalism"” inom vilken Thompson var verksam i. Uppsatsen argumenterar för att Thompsons avsikt med de intertextuella referenserna var att indikera för läsaren om verkets genre, textens mening och sammanlänka det egna verket med det system, de koder och den tradition som Conrad sedan tidigare utstakat. Uppsatsen avslutats med ett intertextuellt perspektiv som med flera exempel visar hur The Rum Diary refererar till Conrads litterära produktion.

This study examines evidence as to Conrad's principles provided by the symbolism in five novels and one novelette.

This thesis is an attempt to understand Joseph Conrad's own concept of the "moral law"; what is meant by the terms "positive" and "negative," often used to describe the forces so obviously influencing his characters; and the characters, the action, and the endings as proofs of Conrad's belief in such a law and such forces.

No description available.

Romancier reconnu de son vivant, Louis Guilloux n’a néanmoins pas accédé au statut de grand écrivain. Nous voudrions mettre ici en valeur la diversité des formes littéraires exploitées par le romancier, en proposant un parcours générique et diachronique de son œuvre, à partir du Sang noir. L’approche poétique de ses récits sera ancrée dans l’histoire des idées et des représentations. Nous souhaiterions également éclairer les choix esthétiques de Louis Guilloux par les stratégies de positionnement qu’il a adoptées pour renforcer sa place dans le champ littéraire. Nous nous appuierons sur des documents d’archives pour mieux comprendre le geste littéraire de l’écrivain et sa conception du roman. Louis Guilloux s’est distingué par Le Sang noir avec lequel il a renouvelé l’horizon d’attente de la littérature de guerre. Il n’a cessé par la suite d’interroger les rapports entre la fiction et l’Histoire, en problématisant leurs frontières et en s’essayant à des genres en marge du roman, le témoignage et le reportage. Néanmoins, à partir des années cinquante, son œuvre et sa carrière prennent un nouveau tournant. Alors qu’il entre dans une phase de consécration, il aspire à renouveler fondamentalement son art. Les modalités de son engagement politique changent également : il soutient la diffusion de la culture. Louis Guilloux rompt avec son univers romanesque et se réapproprie les codes de la littérature d’évasion. Il s’engage par ailleurs dans un ultime projet autobiographique dans lequel il propose une dernière variation romanesque de son parcours. L’œuvre de Louis Guilloux illustre ainsi une exploration foisonnante du genre romanesque. Elle recouvre également de nombreuses tensions qu’il s’agira d’éclairer. / Although Louis Guilloux was a recognized novelist in his lifetime, he was never considered as a major writer. The purpose of my thesis is to emphasize the diversity of the literary forms he used and to offer a generic as well as a diachronic reading of his work, starting from Le Sang noir. The poetical approach to his narratives will be grounded in the history of ideas and representations. Guilloux’s aesthetic choices will also be discussed in the light of the positioning strategies he adopted to carve out a place for himself in the literary world. Archival documents will be a starting point for a better understanding of the writers’s literary achievements and his conception of the novel. Louis Guilloux became famous for Le Sang noir, which created new expectations for war literature. Subsequently, he ceaselessly explored the link between fiction and history, looking at their dividing line and trying his hand at accounts and reports, two genres close to the novel. However, in the 1950s, he came to a turning point both in his career and his work. Even as he was consecrated as a writer, he became eager to renew his art completely. His political commitment also changed in its form as he now supported the diffusion of culture. Guilloux broke away from the world of his novels and appropriated the codes of escapist literature. Moreover he launched into his last autobiographical attempt, in which he offered one ultimate novelistic variation on his progress. Louis Guilloux’s work thus exemplifies a rich exploration of the novel as a genre. It is also fraught with numerous tensions that will have to be clarified.

Le roman d’aventures anglais du dix-neuvième siècle, héritier d’une tradition issue des écrits de Defoe, de Scott, et de Dumas, trouvera ses chefs-d’œuvre dans L’île au trésor et Enlevé! de Robert Louis Stevenson. Ces textes représentent à la fois l’apogée du genre, et sa réécriture, sa subversion. Joseph Conrad, dans ses fictions aventureuses, répond à cette remise en question des conventions génériques. Les deux auteurs doivent se situer par rapport aux débats littéraires de leur époque, et à la prédominance du réalisme qui touchait à sa fin. En France, au tournant du vingtième siècle, les critiques littéraires cherchent une alternative dans la fiction étrangère au roman moribond qu’ils voient autour d’eux. Face à cette « crise du roman », Marcel Schwob trouvera, en Robert Louis Stevenson, l’auteur qui lui semble donner forme, dans ses œuvres, à un roman d’aventures qui dépasse les oppositions stériles qui alimentent le débat sur l’avenir du roman en France. Cette rencontre littéraire est le point de départ d’une réflexion qui se poursuit dans les années 1900 dans les revues littéraires, où les critiques menés par André Gide commencent à élaborer une théorie du roman d’aventures. Ce concept de l’aventure permet d’étudier la réception de l’œuvre de Stevenson, et de celle de Conrad, dans la culture littéraire spécifique de la France au début du vingtième siècle. Dans la correspondance, les revues telles que La Revue des Deux Mondes, Le Mercure de France, La Nouvelle Revue Française, les traductions, et les éditions françaises des deux écrivains, un phénomène littéraire se dessine, un transfert culturel entre les grands écrivains cosmopolites de la période. / The English adventure novel of the nineteenth century, descending from a tradition shaped by the writings of Defoe, Scott, and Dumas, was to find its masterpieces in Tresaure Island and Kidnapped! by Robert Louis Stevenson. These texts represent both the high-point of the genre, and its rewriting and subversion. Joseph Conrad, in his adventurous fiction, responds to this problematizing of the conventions of the genre. Both authors had to situate themselves in relation to the literary debates of their era, and the soon-to-end dominance of realism. In France, at the turn of the twentieth century, literary critics were seeking an alternative in foreign fiction to the moribund novel that they had inherited. In the face of the this “crisis of the novel”, Marcel Schwob was to find, in Robert Louis Stevenson, the author who seemed to give form, in his fiction, to a novel of adventure which transcended the stale oppositions which had fed the debate on the future of the novel in France. This literary encounter is the starting point for a discussion which continued into the 1900s in the literary reviews, where critics led by André Gide begin to develop a theory of the roman d’aventures. This concept of adventure permits us to examine the reception of the works of Stevenson, and those of Conrad, in the literary culture specific to France at the beginning of the twentieth century. In writers’ correspondence, in literary reviews such as the Revue des Deux Mondes, the Mercure de France, or the Nouvelle Revue Française, in translations and French editions of the two authors, a literary phenomenon takes shape, a cultural transfer between the great cosmopolitan writers of the period.

This thesis explores the citation of documents in the modernist novel. From contracts to newspaper articles, telegrams to reports, documents are invoked as interleaved texts in ways that, to date, have not been critically interrogated. I consider a range of novels, including works by Ford Madox Ford, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, and Willa Cather, which are selected, in part, as a litmus of Anglo-American modernism, though they can more productively also be understood as coalescing around the example set by Joseph Conrad. Replete with allusions to documents, Conrad’s oeuvre is developed across the thesis as a meta-commentary on the document in modernist literature. In placing the document at the centre of analysis, and in using Conrad as a diagnostic of the document in modernity, the manifold ways in which authors use interpolated texts to perform denotative and connotative “work” in their narratives emerge, with the effect of revising our understanding of documents. These authors reveal the power of mass produced documents to lay claim to novelistic language; the historical role of documents in reifying inequality; on the level of narrative, the thematic potential of the document as a reiterable text; and finally, the capacity of the document, in its most depersonalized form, to realize social collectivity and community. This project therefore asks us to rethink and relocate the document as central to the modernist novel.