Overview
- Offers new insights into silence, space and colonialism in Conrad's works
- Links Conrad's use of silence and space to how he conceives of the universe
- Shows how Conrad's characters undertake transformational journeys in non-Western spaces
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About this book
This book considers the relationship between sound and silence in the works of Joseph Conrad, along with their ties to Western and non-Western space. Throughout Conrad’s works, a pattern emerges where Western space is associated with sound and non-Western space is associated with silence; similarly, Western space is portrayed as full of objects and activity, whereas non-Western space is portrayed as empty. As these tales progress, though, Conrad’s characters embark on transformational journeys that cause them to reassess the world they live in and sometimes even the nature of the universe. These journeys invariably occur through encountering non-Western space, and during the course of these journeys, the dichotomy between Western space, perceived as replete with sound and activity, and non-Western space, empty of such, blurs such that the fullness of the West is revealed to be simply a surface hiding the emptiness beneath. In the end, both Western and non-Western space are revealedto be absences, as the absence of sound becomes a correlative for the emptiness of space and the emptiness of space becomes a metonym for the cosmological emptiness of nothingness.
Keywords
Table of contents (5 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
John G. Peters is University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas, USA. His books include Joseph Conrad's Critical Reception, The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad, Conrad and Impressionism, Historical Guide to Joseph Conrad, Conrad's Drama, Joseph Conrad: Contemporary Reviews (volume 2), and the Norton critical edition of Conrad's The Secret Sharer and Other Stories.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Silence, Space and Absence in Conrad's Works
Book Subtitle: Western and Non-Western Worlds
Authors: John G. Peters
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44910-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-44909-3Published: 13 October 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-44912-3Due: 15 December 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-44910-9Published: 12 October 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 113
Topics: European Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, Literature, general