Conrad in the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Approaches and Perspectives

Best known as the author of Heart of Darkness , Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is one of the most widely taught writers in the English language. Conrad's work has taken on a new importance in the dawning of the 21st century: in the wake of September 11 many cultural commentators returned to his novel The Secret Agent to discuss the roots of terrorism, and the overarching theme of colonialism in much of his work has positioned his writing as central to not only literature scholars, but also to postcolonial and cultural studies scholars and, more recently, to scholars interested in globalization. Reading Conrad Now is a collection of original essays by leading Conrad scholars that rereads Conrad in light of his representations of post-colonialism, of empire, imperialism, and of modernism and modernity-questions that are once again relevant today. The collection is framed by an introduction by J. Hillis Miller-one of the most important literary critics today-and a concluding extensive interview with Edward Said (one of his final interviews before his death on September 25, 2003)- the most prominent postcolonial critic-addressing his lifelong fascination with Conrad. Reading Conrad Now will be essential reading for anyone seeking a contemporary introduction to this great writer, and will be of great interest to scholars working with Conrad in a variety of fields including literary studies, cultural studies, ethnic and area studies, and postcolonial studies.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations Acknowledgments Int roduction CAROLA KAPLAN, PETER LANCELOT MALLIOS, ANDREA WHITE Foreword J. HILLIS MILLER Part 1. Millennial Conrad: Heart of Darkness in the Twenty-First Century 1 Beyond Mastery: The Future of Conrad's Beginnings GEOFFREY GALT HARPHAM 2 The Moment and After-Life of Heart of Darkness BENITA PARRY 3 Some Millennial Footnotes on Heart of Darkness DAPHNA ERDINAST-VULCAN 4 Conrad's Darkness Revisited: Mediated Warfare and Modern(ist) Propaganda in Heart of Darkness and The Unlighted Coast MARK WOLLAEGER Part 2. Global Conrad 5 Between Men: Conrad in the Fiction of Two Contemporary Indian Writers PADMINI MONGIA 6 Opera and the Passage of Literature: Joseph Conrad, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and the Cultural Dialectic of Abysmal Taste CHRISTOPHER GOGWILT 7 Conrad's Heterotopic Fiction: Composite Maps, Superimposed Sites, and Impossible Spaces ROBERT HAMPSON 8 Connoisseurs of Terror and the Political Aesthetics of Anarchism: Nostromo and A Set of Six ANTHONY FOTHERGILL 9 Reading The Secret Agent Now: The Press, the Police, the Premonition of Simulation PETER LANCELOT MALLIOS Part 3. Conrad and Textuality 10 Suspended WILLIAM W. BONNEY 11 Conrad on the Borderlands of Modernism: Maurice Greiffenhagen, Dorothy Richardson, and the Case of Typhoon SUSAN JONES 12 Conrad and Posthumanist Narration: Fabricating Class and Consciousness on Board the Narcissus BRIAN RICHARDSON 13 The Thing Which Was Not and The Thing That Is Also: Conrad's Ironic Shadowing LAURENCE DAVIES Part 4. Conrad and Subjectivity 14 Writing from Within: Autobiography and Immigrant Subjectivity in The Mirror of the Sea ANDREA WHITE 15 A Matter of Tears: Grieving in Under Western Eyes JENNIFER FRASER 16 Beyond Gender: Deconstructions of Masculinity and Femininity from Karain to Under Western Eyes CAROLA M. KAPLAN Part 5. Traveling with Conrad 17 An Interview with Edward W. Said Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Carola M. Kaplan is Professor of English at California State University, Pamona and President of the Joseph Conrad Association of America. She is coeditor of Seeing Double: Revisioning Edwardian and Modernist Literature (Palgrave MacMillan, 1996). Peter Mallios (Ph.D. Stanford, 2000) is Assistant Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Maryland. He edited, annotated, and provided introductions for The Modern Library Classics editions of Conrad's Victory: An Island Tale (Modern Library, 2003), Almayer's Folly: A Story of an Eastern River (Modern Library, 2002), and Under Western Eyes (Modern Library, 2001). Andrea White is Associate Professor of English at California State University at Dominguez Hills and First Vice President of the Joseph Conrad Association of America. She is author of Joseph Conrad and the Adventure Tradition: Constructing and Deconstructing the Imperial Subject (Cambridge University Press, 1993).