THE SECRET AGENT - DEFINITIONS • RESEARCH QUESTIONS • CULTURAL ANALYSIS: A) the Secret Agent (J
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WINNIE VERLOC and HEROISM in the SECRET AGENT THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Parti
7w WINNIE VERLOC AND HEROISM IN THE SECRET AGENT THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts By Cynthia Joy Henderson, B.A. Denton, TX May, 1993 Henderson, Cynthia Joy. Winnie Verloc and Heroism in The Secret Agent. Master of Arts (English), May 1993, 77 pp., bibliography, 65 titles. Winnie Verloc's role in The Secret Agent has received little initial critical attention. However, this character emerges as Conrad's hero in this novel because she is an exception to what afflicts the other characters: institutionalism. In the first chapter, I discuss the effect of institutions on the characters in the novel as well as on London, and how both the characters and the city lack hope and humanity. Chapter II is an analysis of Winnie's character, concentrating on her philosophy that "life doesn't stand much looking into," and how this view, coupled with her disturbing experience of having looked into the "abyss," makes Winnie heroic in her affirmative existentialism. Chapters III and IV broaden the focus, comparing Winnie to Conrad's other protagonists and to his other female characters. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . - - - - - - - 1 CHAPTER I THE PLAYERS AND THEIR SETTING . 5 CHAPTER II WINNIE . .......... 32 CHAPTER III WINNIE AMONG CONRAD'S MEN AND WOMEN . 60 CHAPTER IV MADNESS AND DESPAIR . 71 WORKS CITED . ... 76 WORKS CONSULTED . ...... 79 iii INTRODUCTION The Secret Agent, although primarily approached by the critics as a political novel, is also a social and a domestic drama played out in the back parlour of a secret agent's pornography shop, and on the dreary streets of London. -
1 “Sudden Holes in Space and Time”: Trauma, Dissociation, and the Precariousness of Everyday Life Carola M. Kaplan, Ph.D., P
“Sudden Holes in Space and Time”: Trauma, Dissociation, and the Precariousness of Everyday Life Carola M. Kaplan, Ph.D., Psy.D. Encino, CA In the close‐woven stuff of relations between conspirator and police there occur unexpected solutions of continuity, sudden holes in space and time. A given anarchist may be watched inch by inch and minute by minute, but a moment always comes when somehow all sight and touch of him are lost for a few hours, during which something (generally an explosion) more or less deplorable does happen” (italics mine). ‐‐Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent She had a perpetual sense . of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day. ‐‐Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway Famous early on for his tales of the sea and exotic adventure, Joseph Conrad, in the course of his literary career, became increasingly interested in the difficulties of domestic life—and he focuses on this topic in many works, notably Nostromo (1904), The Secret Agent (1907), Chance (1914), and Victory (1915). In none of his works, however, does Conrad so relentlessly expose the dangers and deficiencies of family life, particularly in its failure to protect women and children, as in his acidly satirical novel The 1 Secret Agent. When he turns from exploring the dangers of life at sea to the hazards of life at home, he underlines and highlights in bold many of the problems that psychoanalysts encounter in current clinical practice. For this reason, the extremities of affect and trauma that Conrad presents in this novel may serve to illuminate the murkier and less extreme versions of trauma and consequent dissociation, as encountered in contemporary psychoanalytic treatment. -
Pólemos Journal of Law, Literature and Culture
2019!·!VOLUME 13!·!ISSUE 2 PÓLEMOS JOURNAL OF LAW, LITERATURE AND CULTURE MANAGING EDITORS Assoc Prof Cristina Costantini, Prof Daniela Carpi, Foreign Languages, Jurisprudence, Perugia and Literatures, Verona Assoc Prof Sidia Fiorato, Foreign Prof William MacNeil, Law & Justice, Languages, and Literatures, Verona Southern Cross (Australia) Mme Justice Hon Jeanne Gaakeer, Professor of Legal Theory, School of ADVISORY EDITORS Law, Erasmus U, Rotterdam, Justice Prof PG Monateri, Law, Sciences PO, in the Appellate Court of The Hague Paris & Comparative Law, Turin (Criminal Law Section) Prof Ian Ward, Law, Newcastle (UK) Prof Peter Goodrich, Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University ASSISTANT EDITORS Prof Desmond Manderson, College of Dr Valentina Adami, English Language Law and College of the Humanities, and Literature, Verona Australian National University Dr Cristy Clark, Law & Justice, Assoc Prof John Page, Law & Justice, Southern Cross (Australia) Southern Cross (Australia) Dr Raffaele Cutolo, English Language Prof Renata Salecl, Law, Birkbeck & and Literature, Verona Criminology, Ljubljana Mr Jonathan Harlen, Law & Justice, Prof Austin Sarat, Law, Jurisprudence Southern Cross (Australia) and Social Thought and Political Science, Amherst College, Amherst, ADVISORY BOARD Massachusetts, USA Prof Michele Bratcher-Goodwin, Law, Prof Alison Young, Social and Political UC Irvine Sciences, University of Melbourne, Assoc Prof Chiara Battisti, Foreign Melbourne, Australia, Languages, and Literatures, Verona Prof Fulvio Cortese, Jurisprudence, -
Spy Culture and the Making of the Modern Intelligence Agency: from Richard Hannay to James Bond to Drone Warfare By
Spy Culture and the Making of the Modern Intelligence Agency: From Richard Hannay to James Bond to Drone Warfare by Matthew A. Bellamy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in the University of Michigan 2018 Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Susan Najita, Chair Professor Daniel Hack Professor Mika Lavaque-Manty Associate Professor Andrea Zemgulys Matthew A. Bellamy [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6914-8116 © Matthew A. Bellamy 2018 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to all my students, from those in Jacksonville, Florida to those in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is also dedicated to the friends and mentors who have been with me over the seven years of my graduate career. Especially to Charity and Charisse. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii List of Figures v Abstract vi Chapter 1 Introduction: Espionage as the Loss of Agency 1 Methodology; or, Why Study Spy Fiction? 3 A Brief Overview of the Entwined Histories of Espionage as a Practice and Espionage as a Cultural Product 20 Chapter Outline: Chapters 2 and 3 31 Chapter Outline: Chapters 4, 5 and 6 40 Chapter 2 The Spy Agency as a Discursive Formation, Part 1: Conspiracy, Bureaucracy and the Espionage Mindset 52 The SPECTRE of the Many-Headed HYDRA: Conspiracy and the Public’s Experience of Spy Agencies 64 Writing in the Machine: Bureaucracy and Espionage 86 Chapter 3: The Spy Agency as a Discursive Formation, Part 2: Cruelty and Technophilia -
JOSEPH CONRAD: THREE NOVELS Joseph Conrad in 1923, Aged About 65 (Estate of John Conrad/Photo T
JOSEPH CONRAD: THREE NOVELS Joseph Conrad in 1923, aged about 65 (Estate of John Conrad/photo T. and R. Annan and Sons) JOSEPH CONRAD: THREE NOVELS Heart of Darkness The Secret Agent The Shadow-Line Joseph Conrad Edited with an introduction and notes by NORMAN PAGE M MACMILLAN Introduction, notes, glossary and chronology © Norman Page 1995 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1995 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-61096-1 ISBN 978-1-349-23831-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23831-6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by EXPO Holdings, Malaysia Contents A Note on the Text vi Introduction ix Heart of Darkness 1 The Secret Agent 93 The Shadow-Line 339 Notes 446 Glossary of Nautical Terms 451 A Conrad Chronology 453 v A Note on the Text Heart of Darkness was begun in mid-December 1898 and finished within about a month. -
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, Joseph Conrad Polish: [ˈjuzɛf tɛˈɔdɔr ˈkɔnrat kɔʐɛˈɲɔfskʲi] ( listen); 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British writer[1][note 1] regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language.[2] Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.[note 2] Conrad wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of what he saw as an impassive, inscrutable universe.[note 3] Conrad is considered an early modernist,[note 4] though his works contain elements of 19th-century realism.[3] His narrative style and anti-heroic characters[4] have influenced numerous authors, and many films have been adapted from, or inspired by, his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that Conrad's fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.[5][6] Conrad in 1904 Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew, among by George Charles Beresford other things, on his native Poland's national Born Józef Teodor Konrad [7]:290, 352[note 5] experiences and on his own experiences in the Korzeniowski French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and 3 December 1857 novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world— Berdychiv, Russian including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly Empire explore -
Artificial Enhancement and the Posthuman Condition in Joseph Conrad’S the Secret Agent
Yearbook of Conrad Studies (Poland) Vol. VIII 2013, pp. 133–138 doi: 10.4467/20843941YC.13.008.1520 ARTIFICIAL ENHANCEMENT AND THE POSTHUMAN CONDITION IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S THE SECRET AGENT Andrew Bell The University of York Abstract: This essay examines the ‘posthuman condition’ and its critical relevance to Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907). It will be shown that oppressive examples of constitution- -altering technologies fi nd complex and recurrent depiction throughout the novel, often dismantling and redefi ning the physiques of their respective hosts. Most centrally however, it will be argued that Conrad criticises this notion of the posthuman condition through menacing depictions of ‘the Professor’, crucially emphasising the instability and endangerment potentially associated with the technologically-enhanced constitution. To this end, brief descriptions of The Secret Agent and contemporary conceptions of the posthuman condition will be provided. Thereafter, I shall explore the novel’s disquieting depictions of prosthetic technology and their detrimental effects upon the organic constitution, before then interrogating Conrad’s treatment of the posthuman condition and the devastation apparently inherent to this state of mechanical alteration. Finally, the novel’s ulti- mate denunciation of the posthuman condition will be considered, with particular reference to the death of Stevie and the numerous depictions of his fragmented body. Keywords: post-human, technology, Modernism, constitution, prosthesis, fractured, body, ma- chine, Stevie, Professor, transhumanism, enhancement The term ‘posthuman’ has been used in a variety of capacities; in some philo- sophical domains it refers to an ideology intended to replace Renaissance Humanism, whilst in contemporary critical theory it denotes certain new ways of perceiving the human condition. -
JOSEPH CONRAD: a CITIZEN of a GLOBAL WORLD. Review of Maya
Yearbook of Conrad Studies (Poland) Vol. 13 2018, pp. 129–134 JOSEPH CONRAD: A CITIZEN OF A GLOBAL WORLD Review of Maya Jasanoff, The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World, Penguin Press 2017, pp. 376, with Index, maps and illustrations Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech University of Silesia “One day, putting my finger on a spot in the very middle of the then white heart of Africa, I declared that some day I would go there.”1 On the dust jacket one can see a silhouette of a well-built man against the stormy sea (definitely too tall to be Conrad himself), standing on a downward spiral (symbol- izing the downfall of civilization?) and next to it the blurb “enlightening, compas- sionate, superb,” a recommendation by John le Carré—surely, as we shall see, the author of The Tailor of Panama would know what to recommend… but first things first. Nowadays we observe a boom in popularizing biographies that try to bring us closer to the classic writers (e.g. S. Greenblatt’s Will in the World, or A. Sismon’s John le Carré: The Biography). An impressive example of such a book is Maya Jasanoff’s The Dawn Watch which is an expansion of the biographical convention with one major difference. Instead of placing Joseph Conrad in the centre, it locates world history there and views Conrad as “an object of history” so as to “shape his biography from outside in” (10). Maya Jasanoff is Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University who received several prestigious awards for her historical books (the 50th Duff Cooper Prize and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, among oth- ers). -
A That Its Tone Is Provided by an Atmosphere of Sinister Darkness Which Is Penetrated Spasnlodically by the Blood-Red Glare of Gaslight
THE "ILLUMINATING QUALITY": IMAGERY AND THEME IN THE SECRET AGENT S ONE reads The Secret Agent he is aware of the fact A that its tone is provided by an atmosphere of sinister darkness which is penetrated spasnlodically by the blood-red glare of gaslight. The object of this study is to make a sys- tematic analysis of this imagery, indicating how it arose from Conrad's inspiration for the novel; how it aids in the presen- tation of character and theme; and how it serves as a device for furthering the author's artistic purp0se.l In the preface to this narrative, Conrad gives the baclc- ground of his inspiration for the subject and for its develop- ment. There were two distinct impressions, derived from two separate occasions, which gave him the idea of writing Winnie Verloc's story, The first of these occasions occurred as Conrad and a friend sat in desultory conversation, during which an attempted bombing of the Greenwich Observatory was mentioned. The friend remarked that the bombing was perpetrated by a man who was "half an idiot" and that his sister committed suicide later. Conrad was conscious that there was an "illuminating quality" about this story: "One felt like a man walking out of a forest on to a plain-there was not much to see but one had plenty of light. No, there was not much to see and, frankly, for a considerable time I didn't even attempt to perceive anything. It was only the illuminating impression that remained" (pp. x-xi)." The second impression was gathered from an obscure book, "the rather summary recollections of an Assistant Commissioner of Police," and the only distinct remembrance Conrad had of the book was of about ten lines of dialogue, The Rice Institute Pamphlet in which Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary, re- marked to the Assistant Commissioner that the latter's "idea of secrecy . -
7. the Secret Agent and the Urban Jungle
7. The Secret Agent and the Urban Jungle 7.1 The representation of London In his “Author’s Note” to The Secret Agent Conrad claims that part of his inspiration to write the novel was the vision of an enormous town […], of a monstrous town more populous than some continents and in its man-made might as if indifferent to heaven’s frowns and smiles, a cruel devourer of the world’s light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough there for any passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five million of lives. (6) This paragraph anticipates the kind of London portrayed in The Secret Agent, a place much more than mere setting. In his “Note” the author stresses the town’s immensity, its teeming population, and its infinite variety. He introduces the contradiction between the city’s “man-made might” and its inhuman monstrosity, suggesting that even though human beings have built London, it has slipped from their control. The town’s characteristic Conrad most insists upon, however, is its darkness; indeed, it devours “the world’s light.” That the city’s salient quality should be darkness does, however, not just remind us, by way of contrast, of the comparative brightness of Nostromo or of the tales of the sea but also of the setting of the frame tale of Heart of Darkness. From his location in the Thames estuary, the primary narrator repeatedly notes the “brooding” and “mournful gloom” (HD 45) over “the place of the monstrous town” (HD 48) some miles off and Marlow famously remarks that “this [i.e. -
The Interior Crisis: Joseph Conrad's the Secret Agent, Novel and Film
The Interior Crisis: Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Novel and Film C. A. RUNCIE* In an interview with novelist and poet Michael Ondaatje, novelist and poet David Malouf made a distinction between novel and film that identifies a frequent complaint that is central to the debate about whether or not film is a more limited art form than novel. Malouf said: What I'm interested in, in books, is that interior world. But people often look at the books and say, Oh, these will make great films, because they see that minute by minute there's a visual sense working there. And you have to keep saying to them, no, there's nothing there that finally matters that can be presented in a film,' Linda Seger echoes this, not from the viewpoint of a novelist but from that of a successful scriptwriter. In her practical guide to scriptwriting, Seger says 'Film doesn't give us an interior look at a character. A novel does'. 2 Apart from the loss of the novelist's style,3 this is the single strongest complaint lovers of the novel and novelists themselves make against film: film, which favours visible action, cannot get at the psychological depths that the novel can. But is this a fair complaint? One way to test this is to compare a scene of 'interiority' in a novel with such a scene in an adaptation of the novel that is patently attempting 'fidelity'. The grounds for testing for fidelity are not difficuit: when a fiim takes over most of the plot incidents, especially the ending, most of the characters and their characteristics, as well as the novel's historical period, a relatively faithful adaptation is intended. -
IN Ronald J. Ambrosetti a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School
A STUDY OP THE SPY GENRE IN RECENT POPULAR LITERATURE Ronald J. Ambrosetti A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY August 1973 11 ABSTRACT The literature of espionage has roots which can be traced as far back as tales in the Old Test ament. However, the secret agent and the spy genre remained waiting in the wings of the popular stage until well into the twentieth century before finally attracting a wide audience. This dissertation analyzed the spy genre as it reflected the era of the Cold War. The Damoclean Sword of the mid-twentieth century was truly the bleak vision of a world devastated by nuclear pro liferation. Both Western and Communist "blocs" strove lustily in the pursuit of the ultimate push-button weapons. What passed as a balance of power, which allegedly forged a détente in the hostilities, was in effect a reign of a balance of terror. For every technological advance on one side, the other side countered. And into this complex arena of transis tors and rocket fuels strode the secret agent. Just as the detective was able to calculate the design of a clock-work universe, the spy, armed with the modern gadgetry of espionage and clothed in the accoutrements of the organization man as hero, challenged a world of conflicting organizations, ideologies and technologies. On a microcosmic scale of literary criticism, this study traced the spy genre’s accurate reflection of the macrocosmic pattern of Northrop Frye’s continuum of fictional modes: the initial force of verisimili tude was generated by Eric Ambler’s early realism; the movement toward myth in the technological romance of Ian Fleming; the tragic high-mimesis of John Le Carre' and the subsequent devolution to low-mimesis in the spoof; and the final return to myth in religious affir mation and symbolism.