Joseph Conrad's Nostromo: The Concept of Time

Abstract

<p>It is my view that an understanding of the concept of time is central to a reading of Nostromo. For Joseph Conrad, the community of mankind was held together by the illusion of civilization. Behind this illusion exists a hostile, malignant universe that reveals itself, at will, to certain individuals. Conrad's major fiction was directed to exposing this underlying reality and shattering the illusion. Thus the radical time shifts within the form of Nostromo effectively destroy what is essential to preserving that illusion-- an unquestioning belief in sequential, coherent time. The individual for whom this sense of time no longer exists penetrates the illusion to discover the destructive element in reality. The destruction of chronological time and the discovery of reality are, in Conrad's fiction, achieved through a perfect union of theme and technique. This thesis will not attempt to separate these aspects of Nostromo, but rather it assumes that theme and technique are one.</p>