20세기 소설 속 묘사와 비-인간적 존재론: 조셉 콘래드의 『로드 짐』을 중심으로
Description and the Non-human Ontology in the 20th Century Novel: A Reading of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim
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Description has been given a marginal status in the studies of the novel and narrative. It has been regarded by critics and novelists alike as an element of ‘bad writing’ that fails to amount to any substantial or complex meaning. With the increasing interest in the discourses of big data, the Anthropocene, and posthumanism, however, studies in social science have started to pay attention to the possibilities of the descriptive mode as an ethical tool to account for the vast continuum of the non-human world. Descriptive mode provides the writer/reader with a ‘close but not deep’ look into the object, which does not attempt to conquer or ‘humanize’ it. Aiming to apply such insight into literary analysis, I suggest that the early twentieth century novel was the place where writers experimented with the descriptive mode to portray the ontological model alternative to the traditional notion of the ‘human.’ To examine this point, this paper focuses on the strategy of characterization in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, wherein characters are rendered opaque and lack of interiority, which places them in continuity with non-human objects and forms of life. The descriptive mode of writing that characterizes Marlow’s narratives complicates what it means to be human, which also undermines the imperialist project based on the ideologies of humanism.
Abstract
Description has been given a marginal status in the studies of the novel and narrative. It has been regarded by critics and novelists alike as an element of ‘bad writing’ that fails to amount to any substantial or complex meaning. With the increasing interest in the discourses of big data, the Anthropocene, and posthumanism, however, studies in social science have started to pay attention to the possibilities of the descriptive mode as an ethical tool to account for the vast continuum of the non-human world. Descriptive mode provides the writer/reader with a ‘close but not deep’ look into the object, which does not attempt to conquer or ‘humanize’ it. Aiming to apply such insight into literary analysis, I suggest that the early twentieth century novel was the place where writers experimented with the descriptive mode to portray the ontological model alternative to the traditional notion of the ‘human.’ To examine this point, this paper focuses on the strategy of characterization in Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, wherein characters are rendered opaque and lack of interiority, which places them in continuity with non-human objects and forms of life. The descriptive mode of writing that characterizes Marlow’s narratives complicates what it means to be human, which also undermines the imperialist project based on the ideologies of humanism.
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