The Art Of Narration In Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent,as Geoffrey Galt Harpham put it,is the "first,and really the only,written text in Conrad's entire oeuvre." Harpham's claim may have been intentionally biased in accordance with specific purpose, yet it designates special stance of The Secret Agent in the whole life career of Joseph Conrad.With a subtle literary survey concerning The Secret Agent and Conrad's other works,we find critical preference has been given to works as Lord Jim,Heart of Darkness and even Nostromo.With regard to The Secret Agent,critics have frequently favored the political savor it emits. They try to identify Conrad's ideology through the analysis of the thematic approach of the text and its ironic effect.Nevertheless,its narrative speciality has been generally neglected albeit its unique narrative manipulation has been affirmed among Conrad's stories.The analysis of this thesis will be arranged mostly in accordance with Gerard Genette's terminology of narrative time and narrative voice. Since Conrad is a notable novelist and critic,this thesis has found inspirations directly from Conrad's own critic works,letters exchanged between friends,established criticisms involving The Secret Agent and Conrad's artistic concerns.It has also been indirectly influenced by some of the discussions on other Conrad's novels,namely Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim,and Nostromo.In those criticisms,connections have been established between forms and Conrad's artistic ideas.Still,the special narrative arrangement in SA justifies the value of this exploration. The argumentation in Chapter One begins with SA's non-linear narrative time and defamiliarized effect it embodies.To be more specific, it deals with anachronies,time-freezing moments,and narrative repetition respectively.In Chapter Two,the topic falls upon the multi-level narrative voices in The Secret Agent.Discussion will highlight the external narrative voice and free indirect discourse.At the end of this chapter, discussion is built upon J.H.Miller's notion of demystification to designate the artistic effect achieved by the multi-level narrative voices. Chapter Three deals with Conrad's artistic ideas and concerns,notably how he executes impressionism and what he means by nothingness exclusively in The Secret Agent.Whenever the debate comes to Conrad's artistic inheritance,his Polish origin,his early years of navy experience,and in particular,his notoriously awkward economic status are basically accounted for it.The analysis of his narrative skills in The Secret Agent can provide us with a more solid basis on which the subjective assumptions of his artistic ideas might be attained from a more objective perspective.Moreover,this analysis can also provide us a more subtle understanding of the "life force" prevailing in Conrad's stories.