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Absentee Capitalism and the Politics of Conrad's Imperial Novels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Regina Martin
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Abstract

The nature of Joseph Conrad's critique of imperialism, given his novels' pervasive racism, persists as a source of debate. his essay argues that three of his imperial novels, Lord Jim, Nostromo, and Victory, take aim at an emerging system of imperialism organized around the modern, investorowned corporation. his system, referred to here as “absentee capitalism,” was replacing the nineteenthcentury British system of relatively small, familybased irms. he novels idealize the familyowned irm as having a presence of material value, meaning, and afect that contrasts with the wasted value let in the wake of absentee capitalism's invisible and everchanging network of social relations. According to this interpretation, Victory, which has been marginalized in Conrad studies, takes on renewed import for its insight into the relation among imperialism, romance, and modernism in Conrad's oeuvre.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 130 , Issue 3 , May 2015 , pp. 584 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2015

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