"Moral Realism" In "the Age Of Anxiety"

As one of the most important novelists in Edwardian times, Joseph Conrad not only inherits the experimental and innovative tradition of the British novel initiated by Henry James, but also displays the distinct characteristics of modernism and the trend of internationalization of English literature. There is no doubt that Conrad is of great value in understanding British and western literatures, history and politics in the 20^th century.The history of Conrad criticism in the past century clearly reflects the tendency of the integral study of Conrad. The rapid progress of critical theories in the past two decades, in particular, has brought new perspectives and dimensions to the study of Conrad and his political trilogy. But the research that treats the political trilogy as a whole can rarely be seen. By focusing on the key words of anxiety, morality and politics, the present dissertation attempts to reveal how Conrad expresses an awareness of anxiety through the trilogy and to examine the complicated relationship between this awareness and the historical context of Edwardian times through the assistance of Conrad's letters and his life experiences, thus probing into the deeper cultural psychology of Conrad and the contradictions in his related moral orientation.The present dissertation consists of five parts.The Introduction begins with a general survey of the basic arguments of Conrad criticism for nearly a hundred years in the West and in China, and points out that the study of the political trilogy has demonstrated a stance moving from the academic margin to the center. The history of Conrad criticism could be regarded as the history of disputes and controversies. It is these disputes and controversies that not only shape the tradition of Conrad criticism which has a distinct trait of intellectual history, but also make Conrad criticism a cultural industry in western literature studies in recent years.Chapter One mainly deals with Nostromo, which is generally acknowledged as the best of Conrad's fictional works. The first part probes into the profound...