Joseph Conrad: Transnational Identity in the Fictions of Empire

Dryden, Linda

Abstract

Professor Linda Dryden Joseph Conrad was a writer who crossed national boundaries both in his personal life and in his writing, particularly in his early Malay tales and in Heart of Darkness (1901), but also in his fictions set in England and Europe. A Pole, who later learned to speak French, and then English, Conrad was a much-travelled merchant seaman before he settled on a career as a writer. In his life as a mariner Conrad traversed the globe, encountering a variety of peoples and cultures, not just when he went ashore in those distant lands, but also as he worked alongside sailors from all sorts of backgrounds. Malay, Chinese, African, American, Filipino, Australian, German, Swedish, French: all of these nationalities and more feature at one point or another in Conrad's fictions and essays. And it was these encounters and experiences that shaped Conrad's world outlook when, in his thirties, he settled in England and became, ultimately, one of the most influential writers of fiction in English of his generation.

Citation

Dryden, L. (2019). Joseph Conrad: Transnational Identity in the Fictions of Empire. L'Epoque Conradienne, 41,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 23, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 25, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 25, 2019
• Journal: L'Epoque Conradienne
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Keywords: Joseph Conrad, identity, Empire, Post-colonialism,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1323002
• Publisher URL: http://www.lcdpu.fr/livre/?GCOI=27000100070120&fa=sommaire
• Contract Date: Oct 25, 2018