On The Study Of Conrad Within The Multicultural Context

The thesis intends to put the texts of Joseph Conrad, a Polish-English novelist at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, within the multicultural context, and, based on narratology, literary anthropology and the close reading of the texts, to probe into the unique literary purport of his works by means of the comparative literature research.The thesis includes three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion. The introduction part relates briefly about the approaches that are employed in the paper, the purpose, the current Conrad study both at home and abroad, and some problems that have exited and need to be dealt with in the academic of our country. The main body part is composed of five chapters. Chapter One: the life experience of Joseph Conrad( including his Polish background, Marseille adventure, far-east exploration, African trip, marriage and family life after settling down in Britain) and its influence over the themes and style of his novels, by which to disclose the relations between his rich, legendary experience as well as his multicultural background and his writing intentions. Meanwhile, by examining Conrad's identity and language choice, we expectto go deeply into his cultural psychology------a dilemma to be either naturalized byBritain or go back to Poland. On the one hand, he kept his polish aristocratic personality and moral awareness all his life, as the polish national spirit and cultural genes had been rooted deeply into his soul, so he could not make himself completely emerged into British culture. On the other hand, being forced to leave his country and seek protection and recognition of Britain, he was not accepted by the main stream of English society. For his "un-English", he was marginalized by the European culture. Besides, by exposing his affinity with such languages as Polish (his native tongue), Russian, French and English, and their individual position in his life and works, this chapter will also disclose the subject split and cultural shock Conrad experienced while accepting alien cultures and languages. Chapter Two is to put Conrad study within the context of literary anthropology. By describing the features of African primitive culture and the customs of Malaysian aboriginals, he confirms the peculiarities of aboriginal culture, shows his care for its continuity, and expresses his deep concern for the unprivileged nations. He rationally self-examines such hegemonistic ideas as "civilization" and "nationalization", and expresses his desire for the multi-culture coexistence in his texts. Chapter Three is to put Conrad in a historical and longitudinal background and investigate his creative appliance of Bible and ancient Greek and Roman mythology, and thus make an induction of several mythological archetypes that frequently occur in Conrad's works. For example, he uses "exile", "scapegoat" to indicate the unfavorable plight of the western colonizers, the lofty and sublime voyage the mythological heroes take to make the greediness and disgraceful end of the modern European adventurers anallegory, and "snake" to symbolize the wickedness of the imperial colonizing policy as well as the darkness of the so-called civilized man's mind. In this way he breaks into pieces the beautiful mirage of colonizing abroad and the imperialistic discourse, and realize the subversion and criticism of colonizing culture.Chapter Four is to demonstrate Conrad's multiple voices while formulating other cultures. He keeps "irony distance" from European centralism, whereas intimate terms with far-east culture for the purpose of eradicating the prejudice of the West toward Africa, correcting their imaginative transfiguration toward Asia, and thus providing a living space for the unprivileged population and exposing the reciprocal and symbiotic relationship between the colonizing and the colonized. Such dialectical examination offers certain enlightenment to the solution of the world conflicts that are getting worse and worse nowadays. This chapter will also inquire into Conrad's curious but at once rejecting attitude toward such heterogeneous culture as Chinese culture, which exposes the dark side of his mentality in the process of striving for one's identity through others. Chapter Five is to discuss Conrad's narrative art: his creativity in narrator's function, narrative structure and narrative language. As a reformer in style, his success greatly depends on his narrative art: vague and indistinct theme, interlocking time and space, ever-changing angle, ambiguous and conflicting expression, which form a shock to the singularity and refinement of the traditional narration and challenge the dualist mode of moral thinking. In the ambiguous imperial colonizing language environment, one could no longer make a simple one-or-the-other moral choice, as the progressive and reactive ideology are more often than not intermingled together. Hence Conrad's way of narration (a mixture of truth and falsehood), ideology (truth mingled with sham), and culture outlook (seeking common ground while reserving differences) construct a bigger thinking space instead of being restricted into his texts. In a certain self-contradictory and dialectical way, we might say Conrad presents a truth to its greatest degree. He offers shape and meaning to many otherwise confusing and chaotic historical phenomena. His novels consequently possess the possibility of being interpreted from different angles and the vitality of ever becoming new. The conclusion part lays an extra emphasis on his peculiar position in world's literary history, his concern for the fate of human beings as a whole, his rational attitude toward different cultures, as well as his dialectical narrative tactics which help deepen the literary purport of his works.