Joseph Conrad and the Reader

AMAR ACHERAIOU (PhD, Sorbonne Nouvelle) has published numerous articles on Joseph Conrad, modernist literatures, postmodernist thought, and postcolonial theories. He is the author of Rethinking Postcolonialism: Colonialist Discourse in Modern Literatures and the Legacy of Classical Writers and editor of Joseph Conrad and the Orient. He is currently completing a book entitled Demystifying Third Space Narratives: Hybridity in Postcolonial and Globalization Discourses.

• List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Conrad's Conception of Authorship: Probing the Implications and Limits of the Death-of-the-author Theory PART II: RECEPTION THEORY: READING AS A CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT Polish Responses: Art and the Ethics of Collectivity British Reception: Englishness and the Act of Reading PART III: AESTHETIC RAMIFICATIONS, NARRATIVE ENTANGLEMENTS & FICTIONAL READERS Conrad's Visual Aesthetics: Classical and Modern Connections A Cartography of Conrad's Fictional Readers: Reading Hierarchy in Lord Jim , 'Heart of Darkness' , Nostromo and Victory Narrative Solidarity and Competition for Truth and Signification Conrad and the Construction of the Reader: Tension between Democratic Vision and Aristocratic Leaning Narrative Self-Consciousness and the Act of Reading: Examining Under Western Eyes through the Lens of Fielding's, Sterne's and Diderot's Poetics Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index