Joseph Conrad`s Polish Soul - Realms of Memory and Self

Realms of Memory and Self
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-83-7784-786-2
Verlag: Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Press

Buch, Englisch, 416 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 674 g

Reihe: Conrad: Eastern and Western Perspectives

?Born into a Polish szlachta (noble) family, the extraordinary modern novelist Joseph Conrad maintained, even in exile, strong ties to his Polish heritage and culture. Yet the author earned renown by writing in English, often about nautical adventures in remote parts of the world. In Joseph Conrad's Polish Soul, G. W. Stephen Brodsky seeks to reclaim the essentially Polish sensibility of Conrad's groundbreaking oeuvre. He finds in Conrad's work a distinct Polonism that plays intriguingly with selfhood, freedom, and irony. For Brodsky, Conrad's outlook and writing betray numerous contradictions. Despite the novelist's practical realism, Conrad was drawn to romance, orientalism, and the exotic. Frequently sick, he nevertheless pursued a life at sea. He despised adventurers, yet loved risk. An instinctive skepticism, conservatism, and nationalism complicated his liberalism and respect for humanity, and though he resigned himself to Poland's tragic destiny, Conrad refused to despair over the terribleness of his times. In this incomparable study, Brodsky shows how these inherent aspects of Conrad's personality inform and guide his Polonism, along with the best attributes of his fiction.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brodsky, G. W. Stephen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Stoffe, Motive und Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Einzelne Autoren: Monographien & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

DedicationAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction by George Zbigniew GasynaChapter One A Familiar Preface to Joseph Conrad's Polish SoulChapter TwoUnder Western EyesConrad's Two Pasts—Thirty Years of Critical Misrule and a RenaissanceChapter Three Dispossession Encoded: Conrad as ExileChapter Four Conrad's Brody Secret Sharers Józef Korzeniowski, Joseph Roth, and other Children of the BorderlandChapter Five A Janus Gate Conrad's Kraków in MarseilleChapter Six Dogs and Duels: Englishman Conrad's Franco-Polish Honor, Fraudulent and GenuineChapter Seven Darkness Visible in Conrad's Polish Orient: Anglo-Polish Orientalism and the Exotic in the Malay TalesChapter Eight An Ironist's Harlequinade: Conrad's Unified Polish Comic SpiritChapter NineSaint Roman:Patriotism, Sanctity, and Mytho-History in "Prince Roman"EpilogueEnd NotesBibliography

Über Autor(innen)

G. W. Stephen Brodsky is a former career soldier and military academic. He was special lecturer in English literature at Royal Roads Military College, Canada. He is author of Gentlemen of the Blade: A Social and Literary History of the British Army Since 1660. He specializes in Conrad studies, and his articles and reviews on Conrad have appeared in books and journals internationally.