READING COLONIZATION IN CONRAD'S TRANS-RACIAL LOVE PLOTS

Sandra Lilyana(1*)

(1) English Department Maranatha Christian University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

The study is about a close look at Conrad's trans-racial romance related to the Victorian period. Trans-racial love between white men and non-white women becomes a popular theme in the early works of Josep Conrad, a famous writer of the late Victorian period. Using a closely technical reading in the three of Conrad's works Lord Jim, Almayer's Folly, and An Outcast of the Island, we can show that such a trans-racial romance is not merely meant for appreciating equivalence. In turn, the trans-racial romance of Conrad's can be understood as the reflection of the Western colonization on the East where the white men take a role as subjects who had dominately explored while the non-white women as objects who are passively being explored.

Key words: colonization, race, romance plot, subject, object, and dominance

Full Text:

PDF

References

Achebe, Chinua. 1998. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness", in Andrew Michael Roberts (ed), Joseph Conrad. Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Conrad, Joseph. 1993. Lord Jim. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited.

____. 1992. Almayer's Folly. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

____. 1975. An Outcast of the Islands. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.

Hawkins, Hunt. 1985. "Conrad and the Psychology of Colonialism", in Ross C. Murfin (ed), Conrad Revisited. Alabama: the UNiversity of Alabama Press.

Levine, Philippa. 1994. Victorian Feminism 1850-1900. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Lloyd, T.O. 1984. The British Empire 1558-1983. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mongia, Padmini. 1998. "Ghosts of the Gothic: Spectral Women and Colonized Spaces in Lord Jim", in Andrew Michael Roberts (ed), Joseph Conrad. Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Pratt, Mary Louis. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.

Said, Edward W. 1995. Orientalism. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

Spelman, Elizabeth V. 2001. "Gender and Race: The Ampersand Problem in Feminist Thought", in Kum-Kum Bhavnani (ed), Feminism and "Race". Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.

Stott, Rebecca. 1992. The Fabrication of the Late-Victorian Femme Fatale: the Kiss of Death. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.

Article Metrics

Abstract view(s): 342 time(s)
PDF: 133 time(s)

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.