The Reception of Joseph Conrad in Europe (The Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe)

Th e reception of British authors in Britain has in good part been studied; indeed, it forms our literary history. By contrast the reception of British authors in Europe has not been examined in any systematic, long-term or large-scale way. With our volume on Jonathan Swift (2005) we altered our Series title to 'Th e Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe' , as a reminder that many writers previously travelling under the British fl ag may now be considered or claimed as belonging to the Republic of Ireland (1948), or Eire. Th is opens further questions, however. How 'British' are the writers we prize who write in English from these shores? How British is Walter Scott, who drew European tourists in their thousands to explore Scotland? How British is Robert Burns, whose poetry of the people, in their language, was so prized by Eastern European countries seeking recognition of their own separate idioms? How British is Yeats, who lived abroad and died and was buried in France (though later dug up and reburied in Ireland)? How British is Joyce, who lived long years in Italy, Switzerland and Paris, and wrote in a language he invented? For that matter, how British was Henry James, who was born in the United States, grandson of an Irish emigrant, but chose to live in Europe, in particular in England, becoming a British subject formally only in 1915, the year before his death, in order to show his community (by then lifelong) with a country at war. Yet his subject was always 'international' , if fi nally beyond matters of nationality and origin, and concerned with the exploration of consciousness. With Joseph Conrad (born Korzeniowski) (1857-1924), who became a British subject in 1886 and took up residence on the east coast of England with his English wife, Jessie, with whom he had two sons, we come to an English writer of equal stature who across Europe is not seen as English, as this book shows. He was indeed not a native speaker of English, born in 1857 in a Poland under Russian domination, but belonging to an upper class that spoke French as its common language. His parents, exiled to north-west Russia for their underground political activities against the Russian state, found a brief respite in the milder conditions of northern Ukraine before the early death of his mother. His father died shortly aft erwards. when Joseph was twelve. But in that brief time, he came to know that his father also read English, that he wrote reviews and made translations of both French and English plays for the stage, and that he admired Dickens and Shakespeare. Conrad's autobiography, A Personal Record , while ranging over the French and English works he read in Polish translation as a small boy, pinpoints the moment when the boy climbed into his father's chair in front of the desk where he wrote: What emboldened me to climb into his chair I am sure I don't know, but a couple of hours aft erwards he discovered me kneeling in it with my elbows on the table and my head held in both hands over the MS. of loose pages. I was greatly confused, expecting to get into trouble. He stood in the doorway looking at me with some surprise, but the only thing he said aft er a moment of silence was: 'Read the page aloud. ' Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page CONTENTS SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ABBREVIATIONS TIMELINE: THE EUROPEAN RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD INTRODUCTION: CONRAD’S LIFE AND AFTERLIFE IN MAINLAND EUROPE PART 1 THE RECEPTION OF CONRAD IN POLAND (1896–2021) CHAPTER 1 THE RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD IN POLAND (1896-2021) The introduction of Conrad onto the Polish literary scene (1896–1918) Conrad in the interwar period (1918–1939) 1939–1945: Conrad – a moral compass 1945–55: The lean years of Conrad’s readership in Poland 1955–1970s: The return of Conrad 1980s–2021: The presence of Conrad’s works in elitist circles CHAPTER 2 THE POLISH TRANSLATION AND RECEPTION OF LORD JIM Comparison of translations Foreign culture Stylistic elements Characters’ idiolect Conclusion CHAPTER 3 POLONIZING SIBERIA’S HEART OF DARKNESS: CONRAD WRITTEN BACK IN JACEK DUKAJ’S ICE Introduction ‘Africa’ as camouflage for colonialism ‘Sybir’ as an alternative empire ‘Africa’ as the modern Heart of Darkness ‘Sybir’ as the post-postmodern Heart of Darkness Language under threat of extinction Language as a means of subversion Degeneration as eternal truth Revolutions as eternal truth? Conclusion PART 2 THE RECEPTION OF CONRAD IN FRANCE, GERMANY AND ITALY CHAPTER 4 CONRAD’S EARLY RECEPTION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FRENCH ROMAN D’AVENTURES The new wave of adventure novels Le roman d’aventures Troubling narratives, troubled heroes CHAPTER 5 THE FRENCH RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD FROM THE 1930s TO THE PRESENT DAY The reception of Heart of Darkness in the 1930s Conrad in translation Conrad as a cultural object CHAPTER 6 PUBLISHING UNDER PRESSURE: CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN GERMANY 1900-1945 - AND AFTER CHAPTER 7 THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC: CONRAD’S RECEPTION UNDER SOCIALIST EYES Introduction Early years: Conrad and anarchism 1957–73: The adoption of West-German translations Joachim Krehayn, Aufbau-Verlag and other publishers 1974–89: Günter Walch and new translations 1974–90: Conrad’s adolescent readership Never published in the GDR CHAPTER 8 CONRAD TRANSLATIONS IN AUSTRIA AND SWITZERLAND Coda CHAPTER 9 THE ITALIAN TRANSLATIONS OF CONRAD The Italian translations of Conrad CHAPTER 10‘ THE BATTLE FOR CONRAD’ INSIDE AND OUTSIDE ITALIAN ACADEMIA IN THE YEARS 1924-1960 CHAPTER 11 CONRAD’S CRITICAL RECEPTION IN ITALY 1924-2021 PART 3 CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN SPAIN AND LATIN AMERICA CHAPTER 12 THE RECEPTION OF CONRAD IN SPAIN Conrad in translation Newspaper articles and magazine criticism Academic writing Literary impact CHAPTER 13 FROM UNREST TO ANTHROPOLOGY: (ALMOST) A CENTURY OF CONRAD IN CATALONIA Conrad comes to Catalonia, in Spanish Africa and the Catalan gaze Capital Conrad/Conrad capital in Catalan Conrad rewritten, rehistoricized and retranslated Conclusion CHAPTER 14 THE SPANISH AND CATALAN RECEPTION OF CONRAD’S POETICS: A HISTORY IN THREE VIGNETTES First vignette: Joan Estelrich, editor Second vignette: Josep Pla, writer and critic Third vignette: Juan Benet, a writer in the shadows CHAPTER 15 THE RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD IN LATIN AMERICA CHAPTER 16 AN INTERVIEW WITH MARIO VARGAS LLOSA CHAPTER 17 BORGES AND CONRAD PART 4 CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES CHAPTER 18 CONRAD’S ARTISTIC RETURNS: A BULGARIAN STAGING OF HEART OF DARKNESS Conrad returns . . . on stage Conrad translated Some notes on the subject of theatrical translation Conrad on stage The jungle, Kurtz and Marlow CHAPTER 19 WITHIN THE TIDES: THE CZECH RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD CHAPTER 20 JOSEPH CONRAD’S TRANSLATIONS AND RECEPTION IN DENMARK 1897–1931 1954–85 1986–2000 2000–21 Coda CHAPTER 21 CONRAD IN GREECE: TRANSLATION, PERFORMANCE, POLITICS CHAPTER 22 THE RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRADIN HUNGARY CHAPTER 23 CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN IRELAND CHAPTER 24 THE ‘BARD OF PARTICULAR ELEMENTS’: CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN RUSSIA CHAPTER 25 A FAMILIAL SOUL IN SLOVENIA AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Joseph Conrad in Slovenia before the Second World War After the Second World War Conrad’s translations into the other languages of former Yugoslavia After the disintegration CHAPTER 26 THE SWEDISH USES OF CONRAD CHAPTER 27 CONRAD IN THE ACADEMY: RECENT SWEDISH ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP Conrad in the Academy CHAPTER 28 ONE OF US: CONRAD’S RECEPTION IN UKRAINE Ukrainian footsteps Translations Criticism Education CHAPTER 29 THE EARLY UKRAINIAN CRITICAL RECEPTION OF JOSEPH CONRAD Korenizatsia: the political, social and cultural context of the first translations Three major interpretative paradigms A foundational reading: the psychological perspective An intermediate reading: the psycho-sociological perspective The rise of a counter-discourse, the final shift to a sociological perspective and further decline BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Born and brought up in Poland bilingually in French and Polish but living for most of his professional life in England and writing in English, Joseph Conrad was, from the start, as much a European writer as he was a British one and his work – from his earliest fictions through Heart of Darkness , Nostromo and The Secret Agent to his later novels– has repeatedly been the focal point of discussions about key issues of the modern age. With chapters written by leading international scholars, this book provides a wide-ranging survey of the reception, translation and publication history of Conrad's works across Europe. Covering reviews and critical discussion, and with some attention to adaptations in other media, these chapters situate Conrad's works in their social and political context. The book also includes bibliographies of key translations in each of the European countries covered and a timeline of Conrad's reception throughout the continent. "Born in Poland but living for most of his professional life in England and writing in English, Joseph Conrad was always as much a European writer as he was a British one and his work -- from Heart of Darkness to Nostromo and The Secret Agent -- has often been the focal point of discussions about the dawn of the modern age. With chapters written by leading international scholars, this book is a comprehensive survey of the reception, translation and publication history of Conrad's works throughout Europe. Covering reviews, critical discussion and adaptations across media, the book includes bibliographies of key translations in each of the European countries covered and a timeline of Conrad's reception throughout the continent."-- Provided by publisher