Conrad's Imperialistic Complex In Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), the great writer who was born in Poland, is acknowledged as the pioneer of modern British Literature. As one of the defining founders of literary Modernism, Conrad is considered as an innovator of novel structure, as well as one of the finest stylists of Modern English literature. His unusual upbringing and experience determine his choice of imperial settings and conflicts as his writing subjects. The elements of confrontation between primitiveness and civilization, land and ocean make his works remarkable and distinctive. Lord Jim has retained its place as one of Conrad's most important works.There are many scholars of abroad or inland who study Conrad from the perspective of Post-colonialism and make some achievements from his works, but most of them concentrate on the characters and depictions of environment and plots of the novels. While this thesis is based on the theory of Post-colonialism, and combines the perspectives of Orientalism and Cultural Imperialism to investigate Conrad's imperialistic complex embodied in the novel of Lord Jim.The present thesis consists of the following five parts:The introduction summaries the author Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim's literary importance in literature and the achievements that have been accomplished both at home and abroad, and then the breakthrough point of this thesis. Its creative points lie in two aspects: analysis of the inner relationship between Patna and Patusan and the decoding of Jim's identity as one of Marlow's agents.Chapter one analyses the relationship between imperialism and imperial context under the background of Britain in the nineteenth century. Being born in Poland and now living in Britain, Conrad can not avoid his imperialistic consciousness in his writings.Chapter two reveals Patna and Patusan's deep meanings and implications for Conrad, and by connecting them with his original nation; the transformation of Jim from Patna to Patusan not only tells us the moving traces of imperialists'expansion on sea hegemony and colonies, but also confides Conrad's exile out of Poland to Britain.While chapter three tries to recognize the main characters real and implied identities through the roles they played and their mutual relations. Marlow and Jim are the focuses of this chapter.The Conclusion attempts to reaffirm that the novel reveals Conrad's imperialist complex from the influence of Eurocentricism and racial superiority on him. However, being an immigrant from Poland to Europe, Poland's political and cultural background, it is impossible for him to forget what happened politically and culturally in Poland, especially the painful and ruthless exile when he was young. Hence, Conrad is not an absolute imperialist or racist, he himself, at the same time, plays the role of a subverter of the imperialistic order.