2024年12月27日
会員著書案内| 著者名 | 書名 | 出版社 | 出版年 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yoko Okuda | Emotions and Contingencies in Conrad’s Fiction | Palgrave Macmillan | 2024年 |
[About this book]
This book is the first book-length critical study of emotions in Conrad’s fiction. It sets out to elucidate Conrad’s unique insight into the workings of human emotions for a readership of scholars and graduate students engaged in Conrad studies. The book demonstrates that Conrad regarded emotional reactions fundamentally as manifestations of human defiance in a world subject to contingencies and change, and argues that the originality of Conrad’s conception of human emotions lies in his comprehensive grasp of emotions in the broad framework of a contingent world. On this basis, it offers fresh interpretations of his well-known works, not by drawing on extrinsic theories, but through a close reading of the words in the texts as they were selected and arranged by the author. By reintroducing an approach in Conrad studies which considers the writer’s characteristic psychological view in conjunction with his cosmic view, in a way it revives the critical approach adopted by his contemporaries, and attempts to raise the reader’s awareness of the fundamental nature of the material world, characterized by the impermanence inherent in all things; it seeks to arouse in the reader the strong sense of Nature that Conrad and his contemporaries possessed, but we in the twenty-first century seem to lack, accordingly weakening our connection with Nature and accentuating our propensity for anthropocentrism.
The book takes up seven of Conrad’s works which are of significance from the perspective of emotions and contingences: Lord Jim, “Heart of Darkness,” Nostromo, The Secret Agent, “The Duel,” “The Secret Sharer,” and Under Western Eyes. These works, written between 1898 to 1911, have a special significance from the point of view of emotions and contingencies. In 1898, Conrad began writing Lord Jim, and for the first time foregrounded the issue of contingencies and established the framework for exploring emotions in succeeding works. This exploration culminated in Under Western Eyes, published in 1911, in which he integrated the major thematic issues he addressed in preceding works. Structurally, the book is divided into four parts, and each part is comprised of two chapters, with the sole exception of Part IV which is devoted to a single work. The book is organized on the basis of the particular angle of vision suggested by the text of each individual work. Part I, “The Power and the Subtleties of Emotion,” focuses on the stressful power and idiosyncrasies of the emotionality of the protagonists in Lord Jim and “Heart of Darkness.” Part II, “Common Subjective Propensities,” investigates the typical emotional tendencies manifested by a group of characters in their attempt to forge or sustain their self-identity in Nostromo and The Secret Agent. Part III, “Maturing in Adversity,” looks at the impact that intense one-to-one engagement with an opponent or an accomplice can have on the process of emotional maturation in two of the shorter stories, “The Duel” and “The Secret Sharer.” Finally, Part IV, “Emotion and the Body,” analyzes the peculiar emotionality of the main character of Under Western Eyes, and traces the path to his discovery of true identity.
[Table of contents]
1 Introduction
Part I The Power and the Subtlety of Emotion
2 Always ‘the Unexpected’: Lord Jim
3 Emotional reactions, the Idea, and a Lie: “Heart of Darkness”
Part II Common Subjective Tendencies
4 Nature, Identity, and Emotions: Nostromo
5 Surprise, Anger, and Obsessive Thought: The Secret Agent
Part III Maturing in Adversity
6 A “Pilgrimage of Emotions”: “The Duel”
7 “The Feel of the Ship”: “The Secret Sharer”
Part IV Emotion and the Body
8 The Body, the Theatre of Emotions: Under Western Eyes
9 Conclusion