康拉德小說中的空間與現代性

Space and Modernity in The Nigger of the Narcissus and Heart of Darkness

張鈞婷(Chun-Ting Chang)

指導教授 ： 莊坤良博士

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/碩士(2009年)

摘要

中文摘要
本論文試圖藉由亨利‧列斐伏爾（Henri Lefebvre）的空間生產理論探討康拉德作品中的現代性議題。不少論者認為現代主義是關注時間的文學而後現代主義則為關注空間的文學，但本論文將論證空間在現代主義中已成為一重要思考概念，據此主張以康拉德兩部現代主義小說—《水仙花號上的黑水手》及《黑暗之心》為例，從空間的角度探討作者如何思考現代性中資本主義此一重要面向。本論文共分成四個章節。論文第一章首先回顧前人對康拉德這兩部現代主義小說中關於現代性議題的研究，發現少有評者從空間的角度探討此議題，認為此一方向值得進一步探究。接著我將論證現代主義實為一關注空間的文學，認為援引空間理論分析康拉德如何在其現代主義作品中批判資本主義現代性有其合理性，同時也在此章介紹列斐伏爾的空間生產理論。第二章專論《水仙花號上的黑水手》。本章認為康拉德筆下的海洋空間並非社會真空，而是為一被資本主義社會關係所穿透的權力空間，而作者對於海洋空間的不同的再現方式則透露出他於資本主義現代性的批判意識。本章將小說置於海洋政治經濟史的脈絡下，比較十八世紀與十九世紀兩種不同生產關係下的海洋空間實踐論證十九世紀海洋空間為一資本主義空間。接著援引列斐伏爾的空間生產理論分析作者如何從統治者及被統治者兩種角度再現海洋空間，以期揭示康拉德對資本主義現代性的批判。第三章則以《黑暗之心》為例，主張康拉德在這本小說中的關懷核心為歐洲而不是非洲，非洲主要是被用來和歐洲做一對照，以突顯資本主義現代性中的壓迫及意識型態的本質。論文末章總結全文論點，認為康拉德在他的現代主義作品中充分展現他對資本主義空間的批判性，同時也驗證了現代主義為一關注空間的文學。

關鍵字

空間 ； 現代性 ； 資本主義 ； 現代主義 ； 亨利‧列斐伏爾 ； 康拉德

並列摘要

Abstract
This thesis attempts to investigate the issue of modernity in two of Conrad’s modernist works—The Nigger of the “Narcissus” and Heart of Darkness—by drawing upon Henri Lefebvre’s theory of production of space. There are critics like Frederic Jameson who argue that modernism is about time while postmodernism is about space, but I propose that modernist writing also treats space as a significant conceptual category. I focus on the dimension of capitalist economy of modernity in this thesis and try to show how Conrad conceives of the issue of modernity critically in his works through the prism of space.
This thesis is constituted of four chapters. In Chapter One, I will first provide a literature review of the critical studies of the issue of modernity in the two texts and then propose to supplement analyses of capitalist modernity in the two novels from a spatial perspective. Then I will try to establish the proposition that the late nineteenth-century modernism is concerned with space and suggest that in the two texts Conrad demonstrates a brilliant demonstration of the interconnectedness between the three aspects of Lefebvre’s spatial model. Chapter Two is devoted to the study of The Nigger of “Narcissus.” Entitling it “Maritime Modernity,” I attempt to show that the sea space described in the tale is incorporated into capitalism and that the sailors are bounded by exploitative capital-labor relations. I situate the text in the context of the political economy of the sea, making a comparison between the spatial practices of the sea space under eighteenth-century mercantile capitalism and nineteenth-century industrial capitalism and arguing that the sea space is an outcome and also a means of capitalism. Then drawing upon Lefebvre’s concept, I demonstrate that the territorial space represented in the novel is part of an urban renewal plan and therefore a conceived space in Lefebvre’s sense. It can be said that the Narcissus crew is excluded from the land. However, the sea space is also incorporated into the international capitalism. The narrator, as I see it, oscillates between two perspectives of the sea space. I first show that the narrator represents the sea space as a conceived space and a lived space at the same time. In the last section of textual analysis I explore several tactics against capitalism that Conrad stages in the text. Overall Conrad displays a bleak vision of capitalist modernity in the text. In Chapter Three, I will demonstrate how Conrad exposes the oppressive and ideological nature of capitalist modernity by seeing Africa as a counterpart to Europe. As the city is the epitome of the capitalist society, I thus refer to Heart of Darkness as “A City Story.” Three urban spaces are chosen to exemplify the European capitalist society: the department store, the Company and the bourgeois house. It shows that the three spaces are essentially oriented toward economical production and political control. In Africa as the epitomized Europe, the oppressive and ideological nature of capitalism is seen all the more clearly. In Heart of Darkness Conrad retains a critical eye to capitalist modernity, puncturing the myth of improvement and progress and exposing the dark side of it. An individual rather than collective struggle with the capitalist system is staged in the text: storytelling or writing. The frame narrator’s change in his perception of the Thames River testifies to the effect of Marlow’s storytelling and thereby in a broader sense, Conrad’s modernist writing. In the last chapter, Chapter Four, I come to the conclusion that the two modernist works are social critiques of capitalist modernity and assure his role of a social critic-writer, who, with his insight into space, makes a critical comment on the problem of capitalist modernity in his time.

並列關鍵字

space ； modernity ； capitalism ； modernism ； Henri Lefebvre ； Joseph Conrad

參考文獻

Works Cited

Batchelor, John. The Life of Joseph Conrad. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.

Cafruny, Alan F. Ruling the Waves: The Political Economy of International Shipping. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987.

Casarino, Cesare. Modernity at Sea: Melville, Marx, Conrad in Crisis. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002.

Cohen, Walter. “The Literature of Empire in the Renaissance.” Modern Philology 102.1 (2004): 1-34.