The Images Of "the Other" In Conrad's Short Stories

This thesis mainly deals with the images of"the Other"in Joseph Conrad's short stories. The term"the Other"refers to any person or category of people defined as different from the dominant social group. In many of his short stories, Conrad depicts the communication between Europeans and non-Europeans; these non-Europeans are portrayed as"the Other". From the point of view of a British, Conrad was a Polish"Other"; but as a seaman around the world and later a writer, he regarded the non-Westerners as"the Other". The thesis firstly summarizes Conrad's short stories and then analyses Conrad's doubleness (Homo duplex) showed in his works, and points out the Otherness appeared in Conrad; secondly, it discusses some ideas about post-colonialism; and lastly, it deals with the images of"the Other"in his short stories. These images include the"ethnic Other"images (or"racial Other"images), mainly the Malay images, the Chinese images and the African images. These images are constructed on the basis of Western discourses, values and identities; therefore, there's some kind of prejudice against them. Yet it needs to point out that Conrad didn't do so on purpose for he couldn't eradicate that set of discourse as he was a member of the Western discourses. To these images of"Others", Conrad shows contradictory feelings– sympathy yet scornfulness. These attitudes of Conrad are partly due to his life experiences– born as a Pole but had to leave his beloved motherland to join another nation. But at the same time, Conrad has a keen sight to the western world -- he sees the evil spirit of imperialism and colonialism as well as the decadence of the western civilization. So in his short stories when he delineates and constructs the images of"the Other"he also ironies the colonizers. The female images in his works are usually not in his narrative center, they are in the marginalized"Other"position. Even for those who appear in his works they are no other than men's foil. This is partially owing to the prevailed chauvinism in the 19th and 20th century, and partially to Conrad's life experiences. The ghost images as"the Other"and the death motif reflect Conrad's pessimism thinking and philosophy. This pessimism can be traced back to his upbringing in a beleaguered Poland, the early deaths of his mother and father, and those long years at sea when he was first a Pole among the French and next a Pole among the English, and also the development of science, especially Darwin's evolution theory was a source for his pessimism. The anarchist"Other"images displays Conrad's contradictory political attitudes towards anarchism and anarchists; to the anarchists, he shows irony as well as sympathy. On the one hand, he was in some respect very conservative, yet he had also a keen radicalism of temperament. This reflects Conrad's mindset of marginal culture.