Tracing the Aesthetic Principle in Conrad's Novels [Hardcover]

Tracing the Aesthetic Principle in Conrad s Novels sets out to revolutionize our reading of Joseph Conrad s works and challenge the critical heritage that accompanies them. Levin identifies the emergence of an aesthetic principle in Conrad s novels and theorizes that principle through the concept of the otherwise present, which Levin defines as that which provokes desire and perpetuates it by barring its appeasement. This book offers a detailed analysis of Lord Jim, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes, The Arrow of Gold and Suspense, alongside a poststructuralist-inspired explication of Conrad s literary vision and its defining principle. This study is an important source for both the newcomers and the initiated to Conrad s oeuvre.Abbreviations and Note on Quotations Introduction PART I: THE OTHERWISE PRESENT The Otherwise-Present Aesthetic PART II: SEEING OTHERWISE: FROM ALMAYER'S?FOLLY TO LORD JIM From Protagonist to Reader Marlow A Willingness to Remember PART III: A SPECTRAL TEMPORALITY: THE HISTORY OF NOSTROMO AS PERPETUAL RETURN Living with Ghosts The Ahistory of 'the Story also Goes' PART IV: SIGNIFYING ABSENSES IN UNDER WESTERN EYES Capitalizing on an Ellipsis Silenced Exploits Exorcising the Otherwise Present PART V: 'THE ARROW OF GOLD': AN EXERCISE IN PROCURING ABSENCE A Haunting Heroine: The Dictates of an 'Irrealizable Desire' Pompeii: A Paradigm of Disappearance The Untold Story PART VI: TO END WITH SUSPENSE The Omni-wise Present 'A Solution by Rejection' To End Otherwise Conclusion Bibliography

This original, well-written, and carefully thought-out volume offers a valuable and original contribution as well as a worthy challenge to Conrad studies. - The Conradian

Levin s concept of the otherwise present -the continued and continual oscillation between absence and presence-proves to be immensely productive for the reader of Joseph Conrad s fiction. Her book gripped me from first to last page: it is engagingly but compellingly writtel3