JOSEPH CONRAD AND TRANSCULTURAL BELONGING

What is it about?

This essay addresses ‘transcultural belonging’ – the attachment to (at least) two places, two cultures, two languages – but also some of the problematics of ‘transcultural belonging’ which the term ‘citoyen du monde’ skates over. The essay begins with Conrad’s essay, ‘Poland Revisited’, and then proceeds to his late novel The Rover. The essay focuses on three passages from ‘Poland Revisited’: Conrad’s visit to Sheffield; his 1914 return to Poland – with his sense of ghosts and also of his own ghostliness; and his attachment to Kent. In The Rover, Conrad explores some of the problematics of transcultural belonging through the story of a sailor’s return ‘home’ to France after many years of absence. The idea of ‘transcultural belonging’ is then broadened and complicated by throwing two further texts into the mix. The first is ‘An Outpost of Progress’, where the Sierra Leonian Henry Price is introduced from the start as positioned between two cultures – or, more accurately, working across multiple languages and cultures. Here I draw attention to the history of Sierra Leone – with its roots in freed slaves returned from the US and its educated black middle class; to Conrad’s depiction of a number of distinct African cultures; and to the role played by language-switching in the narrative. The final Conrad text I discuss is Under Western Eyes. The title draws attention to the complex transcultural play that is integral to the novel: Conrad’s presentation of ‘things Russian’ through the eyes of a deracinated Westerner. The novel presents transcultural experiences – in Russia and in Switzerland – while insisting on the cultural specificity (and cultural limitations) of the viewpoint from which these worlds are presented. The essay thus brings into play a number of topics that I then explore in relation to more recent writing: the figure of Conrad as emigrant (who, late in his career, becomes more involved in transnational political action on behalf of his home country); Henry Price and the enforced transnationalism of the colonised; and the world of exiles and spies. In the second part of the essay, I explore these through the work of Javier Marais and Clementine Wamariya. I conclude with a recent volume of poetry by Agnieszka Studzinska, which explores transnational belonging (and non-belonging) through the figures of the home and haunting.

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Photo by Dawid Łabno on Unsplash

Photo by Dawid Łabno on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The essay deals with less familiar works by Joseph Conrad. In dealing with his first African fiction, 'An Outpost of Progress', it challenges some of the criticisms of Conrad by Chinua Achebe - in particular, the claim that he does not let Africans speak. It considers transcultural belonging in relation to Conrad and then considers the problematics of transcultural belonging in relation to three contemporary writers.

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