Problematizing Conrad's vision and beliefs

Fakrul Alam attempts envisioning the complexity of truth

Conrad's Eastern Vision A Vain and Floating Appearance Agnes S. K. Yeow Palgrave Macmillan

THERE is much to commend in Agnes S. K. Yeow's recent book, Conrad's Eastern Vision: A Vain and Floating Appearance. It is thoroughly researched, lucidly written and completely focused on its subject: the stories and novel Joseph Conrad wrote where the Malay Archipelago is the setting. Making good use of recent Conrad criticism, poststructuralist approaches to texts, and her knowledge of the history and geography of the region, Yeow has provided us with fully contextualized, readable, fascinating and nuanced readings of works such as An Outcast of the Islands, Almayer's Folly, and of course, Lord Jim. In the process, she manages to convince us not only of the “romance” that drew him to fictionalize the region he had experienced on his own but of the way he problematized it in his narratives. Additionally, she tries to persuade us that “in the trajectory of Conrad's aesthetic development, there is clearly a 'Malayan' phase” in which he negotiated between art and history.