The Empty Centre of Conrad's Nostromo: A New Economic Approach
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Authors
Wilkinson, Claire
Publication Date
2018-09-01Journal Title
The Cambridge Quarterly
ISSN
1471-6836
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Volume
47
Issue
3
Pages
201-221
Type
Article
This Version
AM
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Wilkinson, C. (2018). The Empty Centre of Conrad's Nostromo: A New Economic Approach. The Cambridge Quarterly, 47 (3), 201-221. https://doi.org/10.1093/camqtly/bfy018
Abstract
Criticism of Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo frequently alights on the problem of the novel’s so-called ‘empty centre’. This presumed absence has been read in numerous ways: as a feature of the novel’s style, as indicative of ideological difficulty, and as a failure of imagination on the part of its author. This essay takes a New Economic critical approach to argue that a re-evaluation of Nostromo’s empty centre is overdue. In a reading that advances existing Marxist and postcolonial readings of Conrad’s work, the essay offers an analysis of three varieties of ‘empty centre’ found in the novel: history, silver, and the ‘material interest’. Ultimately, Conrad is shown to locate an empty centre in contemporary economic thought, and to construct a mimesis of this absence in the novel’s rhetorical and narrative structures.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/camqtly/bfy018
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/292711
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