Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence - by John Peters

About the Book

Considers how Joseph Conrad's works engage with silence

Book Synopsis

Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence investigates how Conrad's narrators speak without speaking, focusing first on what is unsayable and then on what is unsaid. Silences (both literal and metaphorical) occur throughout Conrad's writings, and all connect in a meaningful manner to the speech of Conrad's narrators. Readers have frequently commended Conrad's distinct narrative style. These commentaries on narrative have made many valuable contributions. However, this book considers what happens when Conrad's narrators do not narrate - when they are instead silent. In these gaps between what is said and what is unsaid, meaning may emerge. In short, the absence of speaking brings about meaningful moments of narrative memory when one discovers what cannot be contained within the narrator's narrative alone: An incremental progression toward questions concerning the nature of knowledge, the nature of human existence, and the nature of the universe.

Review Quotes

Peters's book succeeds because his ideas and conclusions serve the actual text. In asserting that Conrad's techniques require active reader participation--including but not limited to the use of imagination--he gives agency to readers, an act of generosity that elevates and intensifies the experience. Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence is a welcome addition to the body of Conrad scholarship, and it will serve as a valuable reference well into the foreseeable future.--Sylvia Weiser Wendel "Joseph Conrad Today"

In this pathbreaking new book, Peters... reads not just what is subtly said but what is subtly unsaid in Conrad's work. [...] Peters thus takes Conrad's narrative evasions beyond technique to a more capacious arena where the gaps of silence can speak volumes.

Summing Up: Highly recommended.

--N. Birns, New York University "CHOICE"

The paramount virtue of the Narration of Silence for this reviewer is that it sensitizes both the critic and teacher to subtleties in Conrad's narratives not always readily apparent. We are shown nuances in narrators' speech and silences, revealing dimensions of their thought and feeling unsaid and easily missed even on close reading. Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence is a significant achievement, silently signified in its title. This reviewer regards it as an important working tool for scholars of Conrad's narratology and for teachers of Conrad--yes, especially teachers. Of its author, we need only say, he's done it again.--G. W. Stephen Brodsky "The Conradian"

In this original and thought-provoking study, John G. Peters, a leading Conrad scholar of his generation, shows how fragments of meaning emerge in the gaps between what is said and what is unsaid in Conrad's fiction. This is an important book on an under-researched yet significant topic in Conrad studies.--Jakob Lothe, University of Oslo

About the Author

John Peters is a University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas, US. He is a past President of the Joseph Conrad Society of America and current Editor of Conradiana. Among his books are Joseph Conrad's Critical Reception, The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad, Conrad and Impressionism, and the Norton critical edition of Conrad's The Secret Sharer and Other Stories. His articles have appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Literature, College Literature, Studies in the Novel, Studies in Short Fiction, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Victorian Review and English Language Notes. He has also translated into English the Japanese poet Takamura Kōtarō's book The Chieko Poems (2007).