Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce PDF
Preview Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce
literAry CritiCiSM S z EmPirE and “original and significant. this book shows us how Conrad and Joyce cz e manipulate representations of imperialist belief in the sacred to indict sz a Western culture for its racist colonization. this striking reading of k- PilgrimagE in B modernism emphasizes Conrad’s and Joyce’s use of chaos in general and r e w pilgrimage in particular in terms of mapmaking, racial denigration, and e strategies of power. Szczeszak-Brewer makes spectacular connections r Conrad and JoyCE between sacred language, nation building, and literary representation.” E m —Georgia Johnston, author of The Formation of Twentieth-Century p Queer Autobiography i r e a n Agata Szczeszak-Brewer d though they were born a generation apart, Joseph Conrad and James P Joyce shared similar life experiences and similar literary preoccupations. il g Both left their home countries at a relatively young age and remained r i lifelong expatriates. m Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce offers a fresh look at these a g two modernist writers, revealing how their rejection of organized religion e and the colonial presence in their native countries allowed them to destabi- i n lize traditional notions of power, colonialism, and individual freedom in their C texts. throughout, Agata Szczeszak-Brewer ably demonstrates the ways o in which these authors grapple with the same issues—the grand narrative, n paralysis, hegemonic practices, the individual’s pilgrimage toward unen- ra cumbered self-definition—within the rigid bounds of imperial ideologies d and myths. the result is an engaging and enlightening investigation of the a n writings of Conrad and Joyce and of the larger literary movement to which d they belonged. J o y Agata Szczeszak-Brewer is assistant professor of english at Wabash College c e and a recipient of the Bruce Harkness young Conrad Scholar Award. Cover photo: o’Connell Bridge, dublin, ireland. Courtesy of library of Congress. UniverSity PreSS of floridA www.upf.com iSBn 978-0-8130-3539-0 ,!7IA8B3-adfdja! upf A volume in the florida James Joyce Series, edited by Sebastian d. G. Knowles ThE florida JamEs JoyCE sEriEs Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce The Florida James Joyce Series University Press of Florida Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee New College of Florida, Sarasota University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola EmpirE and pilgrimagE in Conrad and JoyCE Agata Szczeszak-Brewer Foreword by Sebastian D. G. Knowles University Press of Florida Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota Copyright 2011 by Agata Szczeszak-Brewer All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Szczeszak-Brewer, Agata. Empire and pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce / Agata Szczeszak-Brewer ; foreword by Sebastian D. G. Knowles. p. cm.—(The Florida James Joyce series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8130-3539-0 (alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8130-3662-5 (e-book) 1. Joyce, James, 1882–1941—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Imperialism in literature. 4. Pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature. I. Title. PR6019.O9Z825 2010 823.'912—dc22 2010020782 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. University Press of Florida 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611-2079 http://www.upf.com In memory of Izabela and Wincenty Stelmaczonek Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 part i: Cosmogony 1. Cosmogony and Colonialism: Charting Non-Places 17 2. False Gods of Imperialism in Conrad 28 3. “A free lay church in a free lay state”: From the Cosmogonic Discourse to Sacred Secularism in Joyce’s Imagined Community 53 part ii: pilgrimagE 4. Tenuous Itineraries 87 5. “Circles, circles, circles”: Conrad’s Pilgrimage 98 6. Teleology without a Telos? Constitutive Absence in Joyce’s Pilgrimage 118 Conclusion 149 Notes 169 Bibliography 179 Index 187 Foreword Conrad and Joyce: I like to think of them as Corley and Lenehan in “Two Mandarins,” an imaginary short story from a lost collection called Mod- ernists (which also features D. H. Lawrence as Bob Doran, W. B. Yeats as Little Chandler, and T. S. Eliot as Gabriel Conroy). In that story, the two unlikely companions wander through the turn-of-the-century universe, maddeningly unclear in their discourse and intentions, searching for a transcendence to which they are both pathologically averse. It is Agata Szczeszak-Brewer’s great achievement that she can see through her au- thors’ smokescreens, can tolerate their paradoxes and hypocrisies, and can flick them into focus with a clear and dispassionate eye. Szczeszak- Brewer marches them up the hill, through a subtle and sympathetic read- ing of Conrad’s teleological and hegemonic ambitions, and marches them down again, through a freewheeling engagement with Joyce’s subversive attitudes to the colonialist enterprise. The resulting dyad gives us Conrad and Joyce as a combined Penelope figure, first weaving (Joseph Conrad, conquering the day) and then unweaving (James Joyce, unconquering the night). By considering the characters in Joyce and Conrad’s work together, we now see that Don John Conmee and Inspector Heat are cut from the same cloth, as are, from a more variegated bolt, the Harlequin and Buck Mulligan. Dedalus has a marked resemblance to Decoud; Leopold Bloom and Nostromo share, in their stealth and circularity, the habits of the flâneur. We now understand how “The Dead” shares a swooning uncer- tainty with Lord Jim, and why the most important thing about the first part of Ulysses is that it ends, as Heart of Darkness begins, with a ship. Above all, Szczeszak-Brewer has provided depth and balance for the outward odysseys of all the journeyers in Joyce and Conrad, and by ex- tension, of all the pilgrims in modernism from Rachel Vinrace to the fisherman of “What the Thunder Said”: each outward journey now has its inward counterpart, a voyage in every way the equal of the journey
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