Examining the notion of migration and transnationalism within the life and work of Joseph Conrad, this book situates the multicultural and transnational characters that comprise his fiction while locating Conrad as a subject of the Russian state whose provenance is Polish, but whose identity is that of a merchant sailor and English country gentleman. Conrad's characters are often marked by crossings – changes of nation, changes of culture, changes of identity – which refract Conrad's own cultural transitions. These crossings not only subjectivise the experience of the migrant through the modern complexities of technology and speed, but also through cross-cultural encounters of food and language. Collectively, these essays explore the experience of the migrant as exile; the inescapable intermeshing of migration, modernity and transnationalism as well as Conrad's own global and multicultural outlook. Conrad's work writes across historical, political and ethnic borders speaking to a transnational reality that continues to have relevance today.

In 1908, Joseph Conrad was criticised by a reviewer for being a man ‘without either country or language’: even his shipboard communities were the product of a ‘cosmopolitan’ vision. This book takes off from that criticism and begins by exploring the history and meanings of the term ‘cosmopolitan’. It then considers the multinational world of Conrad’s ships – and of the Merchant Marine more generally – to differentiate multinationalism from cosmopolitanism. Subsequent chapters then address nationalism, nation-formation and the concept of the nation through a reading of Nostromo; cosmopolitanism and internationalism in The Secret Agent; nationalism, internationalism and transnational activism in relation to Under Westen Eyes; and Conrad’s own transnational activism in his later essays. While drawing distinctions between cosmopolitanism, internationalism and transnationalism as the appropriate conceptual framings for Conrad’s works, this book traces Conrad’s own engagement with nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and transnational activism in relation to the political events of his time.

"Examining the notion of migration and transnationalism within the life and work of Joseph Conrad, this book situates the multicultural and transnational characters that comprise his fiction while locating Conrad as a subject of the Russian state whose provenance is Polish, but whose identity is that of a merchant sailor and English country gentleman. Conrad's characters are often marked by crossings ? changes of nation, changes of culture, changes of identity ? which refract Conrad's own cultural transitions. These crossings not only subjectivise the experience of the migrant through the modern complexities of technology and speed, but also through cross-cultural encounters of food and language. Collectively, these essays explore the experience of the migrant as exile; the inescapable intermeshing of migration, modernity and transnationalism as well as Conrad's own global and multicultural outlook. Conrad's work writes across historical, political and ethnic borders speaking to a transnational reality that continues to have relevance today."--

Examining the notion of migration and transnationalism within the life and work of Joseph Conrad, this book situates the multicultural and transnational characters that comprise his fiction while locating Conrad as a subject of the Russian state whose provenance is Polish, but whose identity is that of a merchant sailor and English country gentleman. Conrad's characters are often marked by crossings – changes of nation, changes of culture, changes of identity – which refract Conrad's own cultural transitions. These crossings not only subjectivise the experience of the migrant through the modern complexities of technology and speed, but also through cross-cultural encounters of food and language. Collectively, these essays explore the experience of the migrant as exile; the inescapable intermeshing of migration, modernity and transnationalism as well as Conrad's own global and multicultural outlook. Conrad's work writes across historical, political and ethnic borders speaking to a transnational reality that continues to have relevance today.

Opens up the rich topic of Joseph Conrad's complex relationship with languageJoseph Conrad was, famously, trilingual in Polish, French and English, and was also familiar with German, Russian, Dutch and Malay. He was also a consummate stylist, using words with the precision of a poet in his fiction.The essays in this collection examine his engagement with specific lexical sets and terminology - maritime language, the language of terror, and abstract language; issues of linguistic communication - speech, hearing, and writing; and his relationship to specific languages - his deployment of foreign languages, his decision to write in English, and his reception through translation. The collection closes with an Afterword by renowned Conrad scholar, Laurence Davies.Key FeaturesThe first academic and critical study wholly devoted to the topic of Conrad and language, and the first to address that topic from a diversity of critical approachesSpeaks to a range of current trends in literary criticism including transnationalism, lateness, translation studies, terrorism and disabilities studiesComprises newly commissioned essays by leading and emerging Conrad scholars from around the world, employing a variety of approaches including philosophy, psychoanalytical theory, biographical theory, as well as textually driven readings

The Routledge Companion to Joseph Conrad attests to the global significance and enduring importance of Conrad’s works, reception, and legacy. This volume brings together an international roster of scholars who consider his works in relation to biography, narrative, politics, women’s studies, comparative literature, and other forms of art. They offer approaches as diverse as re-examining Conrad’s sea voyages using newly available digital materials, analyzing his archipelagic narrative techniques, applying Chinese philosophy to Lord Jim, interrogating gendered epistemology in the neglected story “The Tale,” considering Conrad alongside W.E.B. Du Bois, Graham Greene, Virginia Woolf, or Orhan Pamuk, or alongside sound, gesture, opera, graphic novels, or contemporary events. An invaluable resource for students and scholars of Conrad and twentieth-century literature, this groundbreaking collection shows how Conrad’s works – their artistry, vision, and ideas – continue to challenge, perplex, and delight.

An Open Access edition of this book will be available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. In a world increasingly defined by the transnational and translingual, and by the pressures of globalization, it has become difficult to study culture as primarily a national phenomenon. A Handbook offers students across Modern Languages an introduction to the kind of methodological questions they need to look at culture transnationally. Each of the short essays takes a key concept in cultural study and suggests how it might be used to explore and illuminate some aspect of identity, mobility, translation, and cultural exchange across borders. The authors range over different language areas and their wide chronological reach provides broad coverage, as well as a flexible and practical methodology for studying cultures in a transnational framework. The essays show that an inclusive, transnational vision and practice of Modern Languages is central to understanding human interaction in an inclusive, globalized society. A Handbook stands as an effective and necessary theoretical and thematically diverse glossary and companion to the ‘national’ volumes in the series.

In this re-evaluation of the writings of Joseph Conrad, Michael Greaney places language and narrative at the heart of his literary achievement. A trilingual Polish expatriate, Conrad brought a formidable linguistic self-consciousness to the English novel; tensions between speech and writing are the defining obsessions of his career. He sought very early on to develop a 'writing of the voice' based on oral or communal modes of storytelling. Greaney argues that the 'yarns' of his nautical raconteur Marlow are the most challenging expression of this voice-centred aesthetic. But Conrad's suspicion that words are fundamentally untrustworthy is present in everything he wrote. The political novels of his middle period represent a breakthrough from traditional storytelling into the writerly aesthetic of high modernism. Greaney offers an examination of a wide range of Conrad's work which combines recent critical approaches to language in post-structuralism with an impressive command of linguistic theory.

In 2024 the literary community commemorates the 100th anniversary of the death of Joseph Conrad. This volume of collected essays takes the opportunity to reflect on Conrad's enduring influence on literature and culture in the 21st century. Offering reflections on Conrad's legacy by leading critics and scholars in the field of Conrad studies as well as by significant figures in the arts and cultural sector, it represents a unique contribution to Conrad studies and provides an overview of how the author continues to inspire and shape contemporary literature and culture in the 21st century. Covering a broad range of topics, from discussions of how Conrad has inspired contemporary films and operas through to the pertinence of his works to current conflicts and key contemporary issues, Joseph Conrad's Cultural Legacy offers unique, original insights into the enduring relevance of one of the leading literary figures of the 20th century.