Conrad’s Sensational Heroines : Gender and Representation in the Late Fiction of Joseph Conrad

This volume considers Joseph Conrad’s use of multiple genres, including allusions to sensation fiction, pornography, anthropology, and Darwinian science, to respond to Victorian representations of gender in layered and contradictory representations of his own. In his stories and later novels, the familiar writer of sea stories centered on men moves to consider the plight of women and the challenges of renegotiating gender roles in the context of the early twentieth century. Conrad’s rich and conflicted consideration of subjectivity and alienation extends to some of his women characters, and his complex use of genre allows him both to prompt and to subvert readers’ expectations of popular forms, which typically offer recognizable formulas for gender roles. He frames his critique through familiar sensationalized typologies of women that are demonstrated in his fiction: the violent mother, the murderess, the female suicide, the fallen woman, the adulteress, and the traumatic victim. Considering these figures through the roles and the taxonomies that they simultaneously embody and disrupt, this study exposes internalized patriarchal expectations that Conrad presents as both illegitimate and inescapable. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction: Conrad’s Sensational Women (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 1-15 The Passionate Mother and the Contest for Authority: “The Idiots” and “Amy Foster” (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 17-29 Pornography and Representations of Women: The Secret Agent and Victory (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 31-57 The Victorian Woman Suicide: “The Idiots,” The Secret Agent, and Chance (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 59-75 The Fallen Woman and Sexuality as “Their Own Weapon”: Victory, “Because of the Dollars,” and The Arrow of Gold (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 77-105 The Adulteress and the Confines of Marriage: “The Return” and The Rescue (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 107-131 The Embowered Woman as Enchanting Commodity: “A Smile of Fortune” and The Rover (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 133-154 Conclusion: A Woman Alone (Ellen Burton Harrington)....Pages 155-161 Back Matter ....Pages 163-173 Acknowledgements 5 Contents 7 Abbreviations 8 Chapter 1 Introduction: Conrad’s Sensational Women 9 References 21 Chapter 2 The Passionate Mother and the Contest for Authority: “The Idiots” and “Amy Foster” 24 I 27 II 30 References 35 Chapter 3 Pornography and Representations of Women: The Secret Agent and Victory 37 I 39 II 46 III 53 References 62 Chapter 4 The Victorian Woman Suicide: “The Idiots,” The Secret Agent, and Chance 64 I 67 II 70 III 75 References 79 Chapter 5 The Fallen Woman and Sexuality as “Their Own Weapon”: Victory, “Because of the Dollars,” and The Arrow of Gold 81 I 84 II 90 III 95 IV 101 References 108 Chapter 6 The Adulteress and the Confines of Marriage: “The Return” and The Rescue 110 I 114 II 123 References 133 Chapter 7 The Embowered Woman as Enchanting Commodity: “A Smile of Fortune” and The Rover 135 I 138 II 145 References 155 Chapter 8 Conclusion: A Woman Alone 157 References 162 Index 164