This monograph brings together studies that deal with various aspects of
Joseph Conrad's literary art. The core concept organizing its structure
is intertextuality. Intertextual relationships are seen in terms of
either affinities/points of contact and the influence of earlier
literary works upon his oeuvre or the influence of Conrad's texts upon
literary works by authors following him. Each such relationship is
understood as a chord that is vibrant and resonates with new meanings
that emerge from the juxtaposition of literary works by Conrad with
those by other artists; these new meanings add additional value and
significance to Conrad's literary art.
The papers create a truly international constellation of criticism, with
their authors affiliated at universities in France, United Kingdom,
Turkey, India, Japan, and Poland. The papers apply various types of
comparative treatment of Joseph Conrad's texts: to juxtapose them with
literary works by other authors, with specimens of a literary genre,
with texts of other fine arts, with aesthetic, philosophical, and
ideological tendencies of the epoch. They apply a diverse range of
perspectives to Conrad's literary art, its intertexts, and contexts. The
book is a tribute to the literary artistry of Conrad's literary output,
to its tremendous and inexhaustible semantic and artistic potential to
be further explored.
