Born and brought up in Poland bilingually in French and Polish but living for most of his professional life in England and writing in English, Joseph Conrad was, from the start, as much a European writer as he was a British one and his work – from his earliest fictions through Heart of Darkness, Nostromo and The Secret Agent to his later novels– has repeatedly been the focal point of discussions about key issues of the modern age.
With chapters written by leading international scholars, this book provides a wide-ranging survey of the reception, translation and publication history of Conrad’s works across Europe. Covering reviews and critical discussion, and with some attention to adaptations in other media, these chapters situate Conrad's works in their social and political context. The book also includes bibliographies of key translations in each of the European countries covered and a timeline of Conrad’s reception throughout the continent.
Series Editor’s Preface: Elinor Shaffer Acknowledgements List of Contributors Abbreviations Timeline of the European Reception of Joseph Conrad Introduction: Joseph Conrad’s Life and Afterlife in Mainland Europe Robert Hampson Part 1: The reception of Conrad in Poland (1896-2018) Chapter 1: The Reception of Joseph Conrad in Poland (1896-2018) Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pospiech Chapter 2: The Polish Translation and Reception of Lord Jim. Ewa Kujawski-Lis Chapter 3: Polonizing Siberia’s Heart of Darkness: Conrad Written Back in Jacek Dukaj’s Ice Daniel Schümann Part 2: The Reception of Joseph Conrad in France, Germany and Italy Chapter 4: Conrad’s Early Reception in the Context of the French Roman D’Aventures. Mark Fitzpatrick Chapter 5: The French Reception of Joseph Conrad from the 1930s to the Present Day Véronique Pauly Chapter 6: Publishing under Pressure: Conrad’s Reception in Germany 1900 -1945 –and After Anthony Fothergill Chapter 7: German Democratic Republic: Conrad’s reception under socialist eyes Frank Förster Chapter 8: Conrad Translations in Austria and Switzerland Frank Förster Chapter 9: The Italian Translations of Conrad Mario Curreli Chapter 10: ‘The Battle for Conrad’ inside and outside Italian academia in the years 1924-1960 Richard Ambrosini Chapter 11: Conrad’s Critical Reception in Italy 1924-2021 Fausto Ciompi Part 3. Conrad’s reception in Spain and Latin America Chapter 12: The Reception of Conrad in Spain Daniel Zurbano García Chapter 13: From Unrest to Anthropology: (well nigh) a Century of Conrad in Catalonia Jacqueline Hurtley Chapter 14: The Spanish and Catalan Reception of Conrad’s Poetics: A History in Three Vignettes Marta Puxan-Oliva Chapter 15: The Reception of Joseph Conrad in Latin America Maria Jesús Lorenzo-Modia Chapter 16: An Interview with Mario Vargas Llosa Maria Jesús Lorenzo-Modia Chapter 17: Borges and Conrad Evelyn Fishburn Part 4: Conrad’s Reception in other European Countries Chapter 18: Conrad’s Artistic Returns: Perspectives on a Bulgarian Debut in Staging ‘Heart of Darkness’ Petya Ivanova, Margreta Grigorova Chapter 19: Within the Tides: the Czech Reception of Joseph Conrad Zdenek Beran Chapter 20: Joseph Conrad’s Translations and Reception in Denmark Ebbe Klitgård Chapter 21: Conrad in Greece: Translation, Performance, Politics Nikolaos Panagopoulos Chapter 22: The Reception of Joseph Conrad in Hungary Balàsz. Csizmadia Chapter 23: Conrad’s Reception in Ireland. Richard Niland Chapter 24: The ‘Bard of Particular Elements’: Conrad’s Reception in Russia Ludmilla Voitkova Chapter 25: A Familial Soul in Slovenia and Former Yugoslavia Majda Savle Chapter 26: The Swedish Use of Conrad Claes Lindskog Chapter 27: Conrad’s Academic Reception in Sweden Johan Warodell Chapter 28: ‘One of Us’: Conrad’s Reception in Ukraine Ludmilla Voitkowa Chapter 29: The Early Ukrainian Critical reception of Joseph Conrad Dmytro Kozak
Robert Hampson was for many years Professor of Modern Literature at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Royal Holloway and Research Fellow at the University of London Institute for English Studies. Chair of the Joseph Conrad Society (UK) and currently co-editor of the journal The Conradian, he has edited numerous works by Conrad, Kipling and Rider Haggard for the Penguin Classics series. His previous publications on Conrad includes Conrad's Secrets (2012) and Joseph Conrad: A Critical Life (2020). Véronique Pauly is Senior Lecturer at the University of Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines/University of Paris-Saclay, France a former Director of the Institut d’études culturelles et internationelles, and a researcher at the Centre d’Histoire Culturelle des Sociétés Contemporaines. She is President of the French Conradian Society and has published on Joseph Conrad and contemporary British writers.
Reviews for The Reception of Joseph Conrad in Europe
Although scholarship on Joseph Conrad has been dominated by the Anglo-American academy, The European Reception of Joseph Conrad demonstrates just how broadly scholarly interest in Conrad extends, especially in Europe. This excellent volume is a most welcome addition to Conrad scholarship. * John G. Peters, Distinguished Research Professor, University of North Texas, USA * This collection brims with surprises. Describing translations, reviews, debates, and artistic responses to Conrad's work, its contributors excel in the variety of their approaches and their alertness to the contrasting rhythms of scepticism and admiration from country to country. * Laurence Davies, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Kings College London, UK *
