“An Alternative Frame of Reference”: the Secret Agent As Sequel to Heart of Darkness

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“An Alternative Frame of Reference”: The Secret Agent as Sequel to Heart of Darkness Secrets and Lies in Conrad, SAMLA 92 Jana M. Giles, PhD This paper explores the continuity of lying in Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent to argue that the latter novel establishes the “alternative frame of reference” that Chinua Achebe criticized the former for lacking. The absence of such a frame charged that Conrad demonstrated “bad faith” in promoting stereotypes of black Africans as savages. However, I argue, first, that both novels explore the concept of restraint in relation to cannibalism for the purpose of establishing that it is the imperial Self, rather than the abject Other, who cannibalizes. The black crew on the Roi de Belges mysteriously refuse to eat Marlow and his white companions despite their gnawing hunger, while Stevie’s fragmented body lies like a “cannibal feast.” Both are victimized by imperial agents—Marlow, Kurtz, Verloc—who serve a rapacious global capitalism. Winnie also is “consumed” by the patriarchal domestic order in being exploited by Verloc and then by Ossipon, suggesting that women, too, are fodder for empire. Finally, both Marlow and Ossipon aid and abet the existing order by lying to conceal the genocidal ambitions of Kurtz and the truth of Winnie’s demise. Yet at the end of The Secret Agent, Ossipon, with his “degenerate” and “negroid” features, unlike Marlow, experiences a change of heart when he is shocked by learning of Winnie’s suicide. The Secret Agent rejects nineteenth-century racialized discourse, providing the frame that puts Marlow’s racism into its larger imperial context, and offers hope for a politics of justice. .

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THE CONCEPT of the DOUBLE JOSEPH'conrad by Werner
The concept of the double in Joseph Conrad Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Bruecher, Werner, 1927- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 16:33:07 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/318966 THE CONCEPT OF THE DOUBLE JOSEPH'CONRAD by Werner Bruecher A Thesis Snbmitted to tHe Faculty of the .' DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE OTHERS TTY OF ' ARIZONA ' STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in The University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable with out special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholar ship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below ^/viz.
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