Cross-Cultural Encounters in Joseph Conrad’s Malay Fiction : Writing Malaysia

This book focuses on Conrad's Malay fiction and the way in which it deals with cross-cultural encoutners, cultural identity and cultural dislocation. Issues of race and gender are to the fore. There are a number of books which deal with Conrad and Empire, but Robert Hampson's book carves its own niche by taking the arguments of others further. "The volume focuses on cross-cultural encounters, cultural identity and cultural dislocation in this fiction, paying particular attention to issues of 'race' and gender. It also situates Conrad's writings about Malaysia in relation to earlier English accounts of the archipelago. It considers work by Mundy, Keppel, Wallace and Clifford, which Conrad had read, as well as exploring the discursive formation within which that work was produced. At the same time, it also indicates something of the region's history of cross-cultural encounters." "The book draws on new historicism, as well as postcolonial and postmodern theory, to explore the central problem that Conrad addressed in his fiction: how to represent another culture."--BOOK JACKET. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-30 Problems of Historiography....Pages 31-43 The Advancement of Learning: Marsden, Raffles, Brooke....Pages 44-71 The Inward Turn: Wallace and Clifford....Pages 72-98 Cultural Diversity and Originary Identity: Almayer’s Folly and An Outcast of the Islands ....Pages 99-115 Encountering the Other: ‘Race’ and Gender in ‘The Lagoon’ and ‘Karain’....Pages 116-128 Speech and Writing in Lord Jim ....Pages 129-145 Absence and Presence in Victory ....Pages 146-160 Dialogue and Cross-Dressing in The Rescue ....Pages 161-181 Homecoming....Pages 182-189 Back Matter....Pages 190-248 This is the first major study to bring together for examination all of Conrad's Malay fiction: the early novels, Almayer's Folly , An Outcast of the Islands , and Lord Jim ; the two later novels, Victory and The Rescue ; and various short stories, such as The Lagoon and Karain . The volume focuses on cross-cultural encounters, cultural identity and cultural dislocation, paying particular attention to issues of race and gender. He also situates Conrad's fiction in relation to earlier English accounts of South-East Asia. Robert Hampson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 229-240) And Index.