Joseph Conrad is a Polish born English writer who immigrated or expatriated to many different cultural backgrounds. He is considered a marginal man, a restless figure all through his life, and a man in exile, without root and of no belonging. The cultural identity once was one of Conrad’s overriding concerns, one that dominated much of his personal and public life. Conrad was born in Poland, but was not spiritually bred and educated by that culture; he immigrated to and finally settled in Britain, but often kept a heightened sense of his social and cultural alienation. However, having walked in and out of the marginal circles of the several cultures, Conrad was able to free himself from the absolute manipulation of any single culture. His marginal man’s relative sense of cultures and identity have well led him to a richly composite individual—one that combines key elements of many cultures. So, the diverse cultural experiences and the unique cultural understanding enabled Conrad to change from marginal form to janiform and became a writer with the concept of dualism. Then, dualism serves as Conrad’s philosophical foundation for observing and judging the world. Born a Pole, Conrad does not see things totally from a Polish stance, nor does he totally take a Russian stance, French stance, English stance, or other single cultural stance. Such idea of dualism is clearly demonstrated in portraying the image of the “self” and the “other” in this jungle fiction. Although such dualism very often produces tensions and ambivalence on Conrad and his writings, there are certainly deep insights and revelations in it. His concept of dualism might provide instructive understanding of the world today—to see all the aspects of the matter instead of just one, i.e., to see things from both the opposite sides.
| Published in | International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 10, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17 |
| Page(s) | 51-58 |
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Joseph Conrad, Marginalism, Dualism, Cultural Identity, Janiform
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APA Style
Li Wenjun. (2022). From Marginalism to Dualism: On Joseph Conrad’s Cultural Awareness. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 10(1), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17
ACS Style
Li Wenjun. From Marginalism to Dualism: On Joseph Conrad’s Cultural Awareness. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2022, 10(1), 51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17
AMA Style
Li Wenjun. From Marginalism to Dualism: On Joseph Conrad’s Cultural Awareness. Int J Lit Arts. 2022;10(1):51-58. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17,
author = {Li Wenjun},
title = {From Marginalism to Dualism: On Joseph Conrad’s Cultural Awareness},
journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {51-58},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20221001.17},
abstract = {Joseph Conrad is a Polish born English writer who immigrated or expatriated to many different cultural backgrounds. He is considered a marginal man, a restless figure all through his life, and a man in exile, without root and of no belonging. The cultural identity once was one of Conrad’s overriding concerns, one that dominated much of his personal and public life. Conrad was born in Poland, but was not spiritually bred and educated by that culture; he immigrated to and finally settled in Britain, but often kept a heightened sense of his social and cultural alienation. However, having walked in and out of the marginal circles of the several cultures, Conrad was able to free himself from the absolute manipulation of any single culture. His marginal man’s relative sense of cultures and identity have well led him to a richly composite individual—one that combines key elements of many cultures. So, the diverse cultural experiences and the unique cultural understanding enabled Conrad to change from marginal form to janiform and became a writer with the concept of dualism. Then, dualism serves as Conrad’s philosophical foundation for observing and judging the world. Born a Pole, Conrad does not see things totally from a Polish stance, nor does he totally take a Russian stance, French stance, English stance, or other single cultural stance. Such idea of dualism is clearly demonstrated in portraying the image of the “self” and the “other” in this jungle fiction. Although such dualism very often produces tensions and ambivalence on Conrad and his writings, there are certainly deep insights and revelations in it. His concept of dualism might provide instructive understanding of the world today—to see all the aspects of the matter instead of just one, i.e., to see things from both the opposite sides.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - From Marginalism to Dualism: On Joseph Conrad’s Cultural Awareness AU - Li Wenjun Y1 - 2022/02/09 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17 DO - 10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17 T2 - International Journal of Literature and Arts JF - International Journal of Literature and Arts JO - International Journal of Literature and Arts SP - 51 EP - 58 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2331-057X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20221001.17 AB - Joseph Conrad is a Polish born English writer who immigrated or expatriated to many different cultural backgrounds. He is considered a marginal man, a restless figure all through his life, and a man in exile, without root and of no belonging. The cultural identity once was one of Conrad’s overriding concerns, one that dominated much of his personal and public life. Conrad was born in Poland, but was not spiritually bred and educated by that culture; he immigrated to and finally settled in Britain, but often kept a heightened sense of his social and cultural alienation. However, having walked in and out of the marginal circles of the several cultures, Conrad was able to free himself from the absolute manipulation of any single culture. His marginal man’s relative sense of cultures and identity have well led him to a richly composite individual—one that combines key elements of many cultures. So, the diverse cultural experiences and the unique cultural understanding enabled Conrad to change from marginal form to janiform and became a writer with the concept of dualism. Then, dualism serves as Conrad’s philosophical foundation for observing and judging the world. Born a Pole, Conrad does not see things totally from a Polish stance, nor does he totally take a Russian stance, French stance, English stance, or other single cultural stance. Such idea of dualism is clearly demonstrated in portraying the image of the “self” and the “other” in this jungle fiction. Although such dualism very often produces tensions and ambivalence on Conrad and his writings, there are certainly deep insights and revelations in it. His concept of dualism might provide instructive understanding of the world today—to see all the aspects of the matter instead of just one, i.e., to see things from both the opposite sides. VL - 10 IS - 1 ER -
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