Western thought has often dismissed shadows as fictional, but what if fictions reveal original truths? Drawing on an anti-Platonic tradition in critical theory, Lawtoo adopts ethical, anthropological, and philosophical lenses to offer new readings of Joseph Conrad’s novels and the postcolonial and cinematic works that respond to his oeuvre. He argues that Conrad’s fascination with doubles urges readers to reflect on the two sides of mimesis: one side is dark and pathological, and involves the escalation of violence, contagious epidemics, and catastrophic storms; the other side is luminous and therapeutic, and promotes communal survival, postcolonial reconciliation, and plastic adaptations to changing environments. Once joined, the two sides reveal Conrad as an author whose Janus-faced fictions are powerfully relevant to our contemporary world of global violence and environmental crisis.
ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Secret ShadowList of AbbreviationsPart 1. Ethics of CatastropheChapter 1. Dueling to the End/Ending “The Duel”: Clausewitz avec GirardChapter 2. Ethical Storms: Typhoon to “The Secret Sharer”Chapter 3. The Cooperative Community: Surviving Epidemics in The Shadow-LinePart 2. Anthropology of FrenzyChapter 4. A Picture of Europe: Possession Trance in Heart of DarknessChapter 5. A Picture of Africa: Postcolonial Mimesis in Achebe’s Things Fall ApartPart 3. Metaphysics of TragedyChapter 6. Surrealist Mimetism: Fear of the Dark in The Nigger of the “Narcissus”Chapter 7. Rebirth of Tragedy: Almayer’s Folly to Apocalypse NowChapter 8. Hypermimesis: Horrorism Redux in The Secret AgentCoda: Conrad’s NeuroplasticityNotesBibliographyIndex