Joseph Conrad – A Time-Lord

Joanna Skolik

doi:10.35765/pk.2024.4502.20

Joanna Skolik University of Opole https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9218-7535

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2024.4502.20

Keywords: Conrad’s life, Conrad’s letters, time manipulation, time perception, trauma

Abstract

Conrad’s fiction manages the temporal dimension in highly innovative ways. Conrad was ahead of his time in employing such devices as delayed decoding, flashbacks, time-shifts, as well as by enveloping his characters in temporal loops or a timeless space. In his works, time defies the laws of physics, allowing him to create an idiosyncratic space-time continuum.

Author Biography

Joanna Skolik, University of Opole

Associate Professor at the University of Opole, Poland and Secretary of The Joseph Conrad Society, Poland. She has published a book on Conrad’s ethics, and numerous articles on Conrad, poetry and rock lyrics. Her most recent publication is a co-edited volume with J. Dudek and A. Juszczyk, Essays on Joseph Conrad in Memory of Professor Zdzisław Najder (19/0–2021).

References

References to Conrad’s works are to the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad. All the references are abbreviated as follows: “Heart of Darkness,” HD; Lord Jim, LJ; Notes on Life and Letters, NLL; A Personal Record, PR; The Secret Agent, SA.

Conrad, J. (1972). Nostromo. A Tale of the Seaboard, ed. N. Sherry. London: Dent, abbreviated N.

Conrad, J. (1975). Tomorrow. In: The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’,Typhoon and other Stories. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 333–359, abbreviated T. Alford, C.F. (2016). Levinas, trauma, and God: Does Emmanuel Levinas idealize trauma? Retrieved from: https://www.traumatheory.com/tag/cathy-caruth/ (access: 10.09.2023).

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Bernstein, J.A. (2012). “No Audible Tick”: Conrad, McTaggart, and the Revolt against Time. The Conradian, no. 1(37), 32–45.

Caruth, C. (1995). Trauma and Experience: Introduction. In: Trauma. Explorations in Memory. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 3–12. Derrida, J. & Stiegler, B. (2013). Spectrographies. In: M. del Pilar Blanco & E. Peeren (eds.), The Spectralities Reader. Ghosts and Haunting in Contemporary Cultural Theory. London, New York: Bloomsbury 37–51.

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Kertzer, J.M. (1979). Joseph Conrad and the Metaphysics of Time. Studies in the Novel, no. 3 (11), 302–317.

Knowles, O. & Moore, G. (2000). Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad. Oxford, New York: Oxford UP.

Najder, Z. (1997). Conrad in Perspective. Essays on Art and Fidelity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Najder, Z. (1996). Wstęp. In: J. Conrad-Korzeniowski, Lord Jim. Wrocław, Warszawa, Kraków: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich, V–XCVI.

Stolorow, R.D. (2015). Trauma Destroys Time. Retrieved from: https://www. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-relating-existing/201510/trauma-destroys-time (access: 07.09.2023). Tanner, T. (1963). Conrad: Lord Jim.

Watt, I. (1980). Conrad in the Nineteenth Century. London: Chatto and Windus.