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Copyright and Use of This Thesis This Thesis Must Be Used in Accordance with the Provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Sydney eScholarship COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Masculinity, Modernism and Joseph Conrad's Nostromo and Lord Jim SAH Henretty M.A. (Research) 2013 The University of Sydney To Vanna 2 Abstract This paper seeks to evaluate the factors that contributed to Conrad's influential understanding of masculinity within modernism. In doing so, this thesis seeks to offer a reappraisal and extension of the established, yet tentative explorations regarding the utilisation and representation of masculinity in Conrad's work. From this, insights into the intrinsic correlation between masculinity and the forces of modernism will be offered and considered for factors of textual authority, historical influence and literary significance. An evaluation of Conrad's instigation of the modernist confrontation of complete and traditional entities, such as the enigmatic and socio-psychological perpetuity of the patriarchal or heroic ideal, reveals that masculinity within modernism is resplendent with manifest layers of tension, anxiety and consciousness. Furthermore, the central friction of modernity, being the corrosive interplay between a judgemental society and the conscious individual is shown to contribute to Conrad's contemporary understanding of the performance and appraisal of gender. The aesthetic and historical influences that trigger these archetypically modernist senses conspire to construct an entity identified as the 'flaccid phallus' of modernist masculinity, a definition distilled from research into prevailing theories of masculinity. Conrad's assumed position as a traditionalist and moral conservative is also evaluated, with his understanding of his own literary significance and underlying moral and conceptual subversiveness influencing the representations of gender observed within the later modernists. 3 Contents Introduction 5 Masculinity, modernism and Conrad 7 Nostromo- Masculine aspiration and modernist 35 damnation Lord Jim- Webs of modernist consciousness and 81 the masculine self Conclusion 114 References 118 4 Introduction Joseph Conrad's prolific creative output has been evaluated by differing cultural and literary entities that have attempted to exert influence over the critical reception of his texts. These academic conflicts are substantiated by an array of diverse critical assumptions, motivated by differing milieus. Conrad's position as an esteemed figure and focal point for the complex web of 'Twentieth Century and beyond' literary criticism was assured by Leavis' compliment that spawned a form of worshipful critical analysis that became increasingly destructive to Conrad's critical legacy. Subsequent criticisms subverted the celebrated morality and aesthetic of Conrad by acknowledging his skill in writing whilst questioning his values. In these modes of analysis, the 'silent' voices of Conrad became tantamount, with his novels read for their unsympathetic representation of the marginalised, according to the contemporary positioning of the critic. These competing approaches between aesthetic significance and moral alienation have characterised the overwhelming majority of post- modern criticism of Conrad. Nonetheless, it is possible to merge these two competing approaches. An acknowledgement of Conrad's literary and critical esteem can be combined with the reading of the meaning offered by his marginalised characters. This mediated view reveals that the problematic morality of Conrad's texts functions as a poignant insight into the factors informing the anxiety of contemporary political and social spheres. Moreover, the multi-faceted ostracism of the 'present', as opposed to the 'absent', voices in Conrad exposes a quality in the novelist that affirms his morality as a tentative combination of cautious, concerned, sensitive and ambivalent. Furthermore, Conrad's position at the genesis of literary modernism demands that the reader must consider his role in innovating highly influential modes of writing and fields of discourse, as well as Conrad's other associated social and philosophical areas of concern. 5 The typical features of modernism, its anxiety, consciousness and nihilist pathos explored within an oppressive urban world, are driven by the larger fact that the purpose of modernism was to expose the fractures of assumed complete entities embedded in contemporary social and historical discourses. Of these, the central complete entity that can be shown to motivate Conrad regards masculinity. The entrenched and contemporary perception of masculine idealism created multiple levels of discourse that penetrated social and political worlds, serving to reify the nebulous entity of archetypal masculinity. As a modernist, Conrad sought to assault the ongoing adherence to a traditional mode of understanding that had the implicit complete entity of masculinity as its foundation. To do so, Conrad considered the interplay between the individual and their world to illustrate the destructiveness inherent to the fiction of complete masculinity within the catastrophe of modernism. This conflict between unobtainable tradition and unstable reality drives the tragedy within Conrad's novels, as well as modernist tragedy at large. Finally, it can be shown that over time, the suffering state of masculinity delineated by Conrad becomes a defining feature of modernist literature, with its influence permeating the works of the later modernists. 6 Chapter I: Masculinity, modernism and Conrad Contents The study of masculinity ..................................................................................................................... 9 The archetype of masculinity ............................................................................................................ 10 Later modernist representations of masculinity .............................................................................. 17 Modernist philosophy and masculinity ............................................................................................. 20 Historical influences on representations of gender.......................................................................... 24 Conrad's usage of masculinity .......................................................................................................... 29 The underlying truth regarding Joseph Conrad is that he was a modernist author at the epicentre of the movement's aesthetic and philosophical maturation. Therefore, to undertake the effort to evaluate the interdependent relationship between Conrad and the construction and representation of masculinity within modernism is to pursue the modernist sense of masculinity in a broader sense. Problematically, the areas of concern relating to modernism and masculinity evoke competing concordant and specific issues of gender identification that feed into complex problems of authorial intention and inspiration. Moreover, these complexities invite considerations of the enduring principles and further legacy of Conrad's version of masculinity. Subsequently, a justifiable appraisal of Conrad's position on modernism, as well as an evaluation of masculinity as an archetype and the differentiation that is the modernist masculine entity can be obtained through a reading of two of Conrad's novels that deal explicitly with these issues; the opus Nostromo and the richly political, yet highly personal Lord Jim. Reading a text for its masculinities, especially novels written by an author frequently maligned for his alienation of various 'others', is fraught with two chief difficulties. The problem of justifying the 7 general approach and associated issues that can cause potential offence, either socio-politically or within discourses of literary criticism, can be overcome through a clarification of the methodology utilised in the reading. Moreover, the inevitable issues of authorial intention encountered within readings of the economies and connotations of masculinities can be tempered through the utilisation of historicist models that provide firmer foundations for conclusions relating to Conrad's position on masculinity. In this regard, an identification of the events and philosophies of modernism that served to inform modernism's specific masculine identity is a necessity. Conclusively, the privileged position that masculinity maintains throughout
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