Forgetting, Memory, and Narrative in Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly. Issue 3 (1st October 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Forgetting, Memory, and Narrative in Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly. Issue 3 (1st October 2020)
- Main Title:
- Forgetting, Memory, and Narrative in Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly
- Authors:
- Yao, Xiaoling
- Abstract:
- Abstract: As Joseph Conrad's first novel, Almayer's Folly remains underdiscussed, given how this very first novel, as Ian Watt sees it, illuminates "many of the technical problems which characterized Conrad's whole development as a novelist, including the dominant role of memory" ("Almayer's Folly" 177). At the center of Watt's observation is the place of memory — the way Conrad utilizes narrative techniques to represent it and the problems these very techniques create in communicating retrospective information to readers. Any discussion of memory is inseparable from its supposed opposite, forgetting. This paper furthers the line of inquiry shaped by Watt to explore the act of forgetting (and remembering) in great detail, as well as its intricate interplay with narrative strategies in Almayer's Folly . I argue that Almayer's hyperbolic process of forgetting through trace effacement ironically presents itself as an act that not only betrays the protagonist's intention to forget unpleasurable experiences, but also as one that proclaims its own limits. As a writer, Conrad demonstrates the complexity of forgetting through changes in style and narrative strategies. The intricate interaction between experience and expression renders Conrad's first literary attempt a work of art that is more sophisticated and ironic than many scholars contend it to be.
- Is Part Of:
- Explicator. Volume 78:Issue 3/4(2020)
- Journal:
- Explicator
- Issue:
- Volume 78:Issue 3/4(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 78, Issue 3/4 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 78
- Issue:
- 3/4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0078-NaN-0000
- Page Start:
- 143
- Page End:
- 146
- Publication Date:
- 2020-10-01
- Subjects:
- Almayer's Folly -- the act of forgetting -- trace effacement -- memory
English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Electronic journals
820.5 - Journal URLs:
- http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc/ExplicatorHelenDwightReidEducat/issues.htm ↗
http://www.heldref.org ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/vexp20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.umi.com/proquest ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/00144940.2020.1844120 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0014-4940
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3842.153000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 15017.xml