The first international conference ever held in Africa on the works of author Joseph Conrad took place in 1998, to mark the centenary of the publication of heart of darkness. This book draws its title from Conrad's short story, `An Outpost of Progress' which represented the responses of a European to colonial settler assumptions about progress and backwardness, in the light of his first-hand experience of Europeans in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The 13 essays in this collection engage directly with the ways in which Conrad's fiction explores and problematises the notion of `progress', not only at the time when he was writing but now, more than a century later. Although the relationship between modernist and postcolonial literature has been theorised by critics in Britain, Europe and America since the late 1980s, for the first time, this book brings these debates to Africa.

Consistently praised for its readability and scholarship, Studying the Novel is the ideal undergraduate companion to the study of the novel and shorter fiction. Revised throughout to reflect the profound impact of e-reading and digital resources on the writing, reading, and analysis of fiction, the eighth edition includes a new chapter on popular fiction that covers children's fiction, horror and the gothic, science fiction, the detective story, the comic novel, and the graphic novel. The chapter on World Literature has been expanded to include sections on fiction and apartheid, and the fiction of disability, and information on electronic resources has been thoroughly updated. Providing a complete guide to the study of prose fiction in one reader-friendly volume, the book covers: - The history and diversity of the novel, from early ancestors to new electronic forms - The novel, the novella, and the short story - Realism, modernism, and postmodernism - Analysing fiction: narrators, character, structure, theme, and dialogue - Popular fiction - Critical approaches to studying the novel - Practical guidance on textual analysis, the choice and use of criticism, electronic resources, and essay writing - Film and TV adaptations, and reading novels in translation - World literature Comprehensive cross-referencing allows readers to locate information quickly. Technical terms and concepts such as 'perspective and voice', symbol and image, Free Indirect Discourse, and many others are all explained with the help of examples from a wide range of fictional works. A Glossary provides additional explanations of terms and concepts the student is likely to encounter, and each chapter concludes with a set of study questions.

"Studying Literature: The Essential Companion" is a unique guide for English undergraduates. It combines practical advice on study skills with key information on literary theories and theorists, offering invaluable support throughout any English degree. Key Features:

• A study skills guide combined with an overview of literary theories makes for a one-stop reference that can be used throughout your English degree.
• The study skills section prepares you for your course with advice on using the library for essay writing, and for your exams with tips on revision and preparation.
• The digital resource section provides information on how to use Google Books and sites such as Facebook, as well as the pros and cons of using Wikipedia.
• Understanding literary theory is essential to all English degrees and this section outlines the main theories in a clear and comprehensive way.
• Literary theorists are profiled to ensure that you have a comprehensive grounding in the subject.

Now in its seventh edition, Studying the Novel is an authoritative introduction to the study of the novel at undergraduate level. Updated throughout to reflect the profound impact of e-reading and digital resources on the contemporary study of literature, the book also now includes a wider range of international examples to reflect the growing field of world literature. Providing a complete guide to studying the novel in one easy-to-read volume, the book covers: * The form of the novel * The history of the novel, from its earliest days to new electronic forms * Realism, modernism and postmodernism * Analysing fiction: narrative, character, structure, theme and dialogue * Critical approaches to studying the novel * Practical guidance on critical reading, secondary criticism, electronic resources and essay writing * Versions and adaptations Studying the Novel also includes a number of features to help readers navigate the book and find key information quickly, including chapter summaries throughout, a comprehensive glossary of terms and an historical timeline on the development of the novel, while annotated guides to further reading and discussion questions help students master the topics covered.

'A sudden passion of anxious impatience rushed through my veins and gave me such a sense of the intensity of existence as I have never felt before or since.' link title to catalogue entry](exact date?)Written in 1915, The Shadow-Line is based upon events and experiences from twenty-seven years earlier to which Conrad returned obsessively in his fiction. A young sea captain's first command brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain. This is indeed a work full of 'sudden passions', in which Conrad is able to show how the full intensity of existence can be experienced by the man who, in the words of the older Captain Giles, is prepared to 'stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience'. A subtle and penetrating analysis of the nature of manhood, The Shadow-Line investigates varieties of masculinity and desire in a subtext that counterpoints the tale's seemingly conventional surface. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This volume offers scholars the first authoritative text of two works produced collaboratively by two of the most important modern British novelists. Long hard to obtain and frequently neglected by critics, each can now be appreciated both in its own right and as part of the two authors' individual oeuvres. This scholarly edition situates both works in the context of the writers' meeting and ongoing collaboration, providing illuminating literary and historical references and detailing the works' composition history and reception in the UK and America. As well as establishing definitive texts of both works and of the authors' prefaces written for the 1924 republication of The Nature of a Crime, this edition also includes Ford's own 1924 account of his collaboration with Conrad on The Inheritors, as well as the text of Ford's 'The Old Story', a hitherto unpublished early draft of the basic plot of The Nature of a Crime.

Awarded third place for The Adam Gillon Book Award in Conrad Studies 2009 The book presents a sustained critique of the interlinked (and contradictory) views that the fiction of Joseph Conrad is largely innocent of any interest in or concern with sexuality and the erotic, and that when Conrad does attempt to depict sexual desire or erotic excitement then this results in bad writing. Jeremy Hawthorn argues for a revision of the view that Conrad lacks understanding of and interest in sexuality. He argues that the comprehensiveness of Conrad's vision does not exclude a concern with the sexual and the erotic, and that this concern is not with the sexual and the erotic as separate spheres of human life, but as elements dialectically related to those matters public and political that have always been recognized as central to Conrad's fictional achievement. The book will open Conrad's fiction to readings enriched by the insights of critics and theorists associated with Gender Studies and Post-colonialism.

Consistently praised for its readability and scholarship, Studying the Novel is the ideal undergraduate companion to the study of the novel and shorter fiction. Revised throughout to reflect the profound impact of e-reading and digital resources on the writing, reading, and analysis of fiction, the eighth edition includes a new chapter on popular fiction that covers children's fiction, horror and the gothic, science fiction, the detective story, the comic novel, and the graphic novel. The chapter on World Literature has been expanded to include sections on fiction and apartheid, and the fiction of disability, and information on electronic resources has been thoroughly updated. Providing a complete guide to the study of prose fiction in one reader-friendly volume, the book covers: - The history and diversity of the novel, from early ancestors to new electronic forms - The novel, the novella, and the short story - Realism, modernism, and postmodernism - Analysing fiction: narrators, character, structure, theme, and dialogue - Popular fiction - Critical approaches to studying the novel - Practical guidance on textual analysis, the choice and use of criticism, electronic resources, and essay writing - Film and TV adaptations, and reading novels in translation - World literature Comprehensive cross-referencing allows readers to locate information quickly. Technical terms and concepts such as 'perspective and voice', symbol and image, Free Indirect Discourse, and many others are all explained with the help of examples from a wide range of fictional works. A Glossary provides additional explanations of terms and concepts the student is likely to encounter, and each chapter concludes with a set of study questions.

Set in the tumultuous political world of Tsarist repression and revolutionary intrigue in St Petersburg and Geneva, Under Western Eyes (1911) renders with searing intensity the psychological torment of its Russian protagonist, a university student who, in betraying another, has betrayed himself. Based upon a comparison of the existing manuscript and other materials, this scholarly and first extensively annotated edition of Joseph Conrad's great novel Under Western Eyes differs from all previous printings by more accurately reflecting Conrad's writing process. The reading text is supported by new scholarly materials that are the result of fifteen years of investigation: essays on the textual and biographical history of the novel, extensive notes, appendices and maps, as well as a full listing of the thousands of textual variants in the early forms of the novel, including the 18,000 words that Conrad himself deleted.

This revised and expanded edition includes over 70 new terms and usages from this volatile and fast-changing field. A number of new entries come from the increasingly influential area of gender politics including queer theory and masculinity studies.;New terms in this edition include: camp reading, closet criticism, deghettoization, femaling, faghag/fagstag character, lavender language, literary cross-dressing, literary outing, sexual code-switching, and transgender. In addition, many existing entries have been revised and the guide to further reading has been updated.