The Conradian Legacy in the Novels of Graham Greene

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One. The Socio-Historical Context

Chapter One. The Formative Years

1.1. The Lost Childhood

1.2. Temperament and Personality

1.3. The World Arena

1.3.1. The ‘Fin de Siècle’: An Age of Dissolution

1.3.2. The First World War

The Changing Experience of Women

1.3.3. The 1920s : An Era of Revolt

Labour Unrest

1.3.4. The Thirties: The Devil’s Decade

1.3.5. The Second World War: ‘Apocalypse Now’

Chapter Two. The Literary Scene

2.1. Realism and Modernism: The Transition

2.2. The Literature of the 1930s

Part II. A World in Shambles: The Secret Agent / It’s A Battlefield

Chapter Three. Politics and Betrayal

3.1. ‘The Injustice of Men’s Justice’

3.2. Martyrs or Scapegoats?

3.3. Female Offenders

Chapter Four. The Illuminating Quality

4.1. Narrative Structure

4.2. Irony

4.3. Repetition

4.4. Imagery

Part III: ‘The Hollow Men’: Heart of Darkness/A Burnt-Out Case

Chapter Five. Paradise Lost

5.1. The Wasteland

5.1.1. Heart of Darkness as pretext

5.1.2. The Anatomy of Allusions

Heart of Darkness and A Burnt-Out-Case as Faustian Narratives

Albert Camus’s Absurd Man and Life

The Voice of T.S. Eliot

5.2. In Search of Truth

5.3. The Doppelganger

Chapter Six.‘Technique as Discovery’

6.1. Free Indirect Speech (FIS)

6.2. Appositions and Substitutions

6.3. ‘Stream-of-Consciousness’ versus Dreams

6.4. Metaphors

6.5. Similes

Research Objectives and Themes

This thesis examines the literary relationship between Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene, specifically focusing on the concept of influence as a dynamic, intertextual process of misreading and re-interpretation. The primary research goal is to investigate how Greene navigated the "anxiety of influence" caused by Conrad, and to determine whether he successfully established his own artistic identity through his thematic and stylistic borrowings and transformations of Conradian works.

• The role of intertextuality and the "anxiety of influence" in the literary legacy between Conrad and Greene.
• A comparative analysis of socio-historical contexts and the formative years of both authors.
• A detailed examination of Conrad's The Secret Agent in relation to Greene's It’s A Battlefield, focusing on politics, betrayal, and social justice.
• A thematic and stylistic study of Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Greene's A Burnt-Out-Case, particularly regarding the themes of moral failure and existential alienation.
• The application of psychoanalytic and socio-critical approaches to decode the "dialogic relationship" between the authors' texts.

Excerpt from the Book

Summary of Chapters

Chapter One. The Formative Years: This chapter analyzes the early lives of Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene, focusing on their shared childhood traumas and how these experiences influenced their subsequent development and literary concerns.

Chapter Two. The Literary Scene: This section situates both authors within the transition from Realism to Modernism and explores how they responded to the cultural and political shifts of the early twentieth century.

Chapter Three. Politics and Betrayal: This chapter provides a comparative study of The Secret Agent and It’s A Battlefield, examining themes of social injustice, political disillusionment, and the arbitrariness of law.

Chapter Four. The Illuminating Quality: This section investigates the stylistic devices and narrative techniques that Greene inherited from Conrad and adapted to further his own artistic purposes.

Chapter Five. Paradise Lost: This chapter explores the intertextual connections between Heart of Darkness and A Burnt-Out-Case, analyzing the themes of moral failure, the journey as self-discovery, and the "hollow man" motif.

Chapter Six.‘Technique as Discovery’: This concluding analytical chapter identifies essential aspects of the writers’ narrative methods, such as free indirect speech, metaphor, and simile, to demonstrate how these devices support their thematic development.

Keywords

Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Intertextuality, Anxiety of Influence, Modernism, Realism, Politics, Betrayal, Existentialism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Socio-criticism, Narrative Structure, Post-colonialism, Moral Landscape, The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core focus of this thesis?

The thesis explores the intertextual legacy of Joseph Conrad in the novels of Graham Greene, investigating how Conrad's influence shaped Greene's work through a "dialogic relationship" between their texts.

What are the central thematic fields?

The work centers on themes of politics, social justice, betrayal, human nature, moral failure, and the existential condition within the context of early to mid-twentieth-century industrial society.

What is the primary research goal?

The goal is to elucidate how Greene, as a literary heir, absorbed, transmuted, or rejected Conradian themes and techniques, and to provide a revisionist reading of Greene's work to contribute to its "individuation."

Which scientific methods are employed?

The study utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, primarily relying on intertextual analysis, psychoanalytic criticism, and socio-criticism to investigate the deep connection between the authors' lives and their fictional representations.

What does the main body address?

The body is divided into three parts: a socio-historical context, a detailed comparative study of The Secret Agent and It’s A Battlefield, and an analysis of Heart of Darkness in relation to A Burnt-Out-Case.

Which keywords characterize the work?

Key terms include Intertextuality, Anxiety of Influence, Existentialism, Moral Landscape, Modernism, and Psychoanalytic Criticism.

How does the author define "influence" in the context of this study?

Following Harold Bloom, the author defines influence not as a simple transmission of ideas, but as a critical act of "misprision" or "misreading," wherein a writer actively interacts with a precursor to find his own artistic space.

How is the "Double" motif analyzed in the context of both authors?

The "Double" (or Doppelgänger) is analyzed as an expression of the writers' own internal divisions and anxieties, serving as a device to externalize the conflicts between their identities, such as their shared experiences of displacement and their "divided loyalties."