Tropical Modernism in Joseph Conrad’s Sea Tales

Abstract

Arnold Anthony Schmidt’s chapter situates three tales by Joseph Conrad in the context of Tropical Modernism, which constructs Western European social identities through contrasts with the peoples and cultures of the tropics. Conrad’s writings invoke and undercut Tropical Modernist tropes as his stories explore race and professionalism (The Nigger of the Narcissus), the nature of language and imagination (Typhoon) and the coming of age and masculinity (“Youth”). Interpreting Typhoon against the background of contemporary sailing manuals sheds new light on the captain’s decision to sail directly through a dangerous storm while analysing the trio of letters that bookend the novella’s beginning and end prompts discussion of the limits of linguistic communication.