ABSTRACT

Nostromo is considered the first of Joseph Conrad's political novels. Nostromo, originally intended as a short story, was begun during the period of composition of Romance. Nostromo, Conrad's long fiction continued to focus on exposing the function of narrative in the construction of political ideology, which in turn is naturalised through further narration. Captain Mitchell's guided tour of Sulaco, put on for the benefit of 'distinguished strangers' mirrors in many ways the narrative of Nostromo itself. In Nostromo Conrad is able to transfer his own anxiety about his creative powers into an aesthetic that confronts aggressively the complacency and complicity of form expected by so many of his readers. In Nostromo Conrad makes use of and subverts various romance tropes in order to challenge, not only in the novel's construction but also, through the experiences of its protagonists.