Title: AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS: ECHOES OF ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE
Abstract: Although the echoes of romance and adventure in Conrad's work have long been recognised and commented upon, what is often not examined is what exactiy Conrad is doing with the romance elements of his writing.1 What are die values of this romance tradition out of which some of Conrad's work seems to be emerging?2 We know from Conrad himself, and from Ford Madox Ford, that he admired the early romances of Fenimore Cooper and Captain Marryat.3 This paper will explore some of the motifs employed by Conrad in his characterisation of Willems in An Outcast of the Islands (1896). My purpose is to show that Conrad makes conscious use of the late nineteenth-century romance and adventure tradition as exemplified by the likes of G. A. Henty, H. Rider Haggard and, to some extent, Rudyard Kipling. Such an analysis will reveal the hollowness of many of the values of the romance when applied to actual late nineteenth-century lives. The genre of adventurous romance for boys becomes the means through which Conrad ironises and undermines what Robert Hampson calls the
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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