ABSTRACT
Despite differences in approach and subject matter the three volumes under discussion have something in common: a desire to re-centre both writing in Conrad and writing on Conrad so as to make of his work the locus classicus of certain themes, concepts and philosophical concerns. There may be inconsistencies, ambiguities, tensions and so forth to be thoughtfully teased from the text, but the overall thrust in Conrad, for the authors of these books, is towards meaning, particularly meaning that can be circumscribed with a reasonable amount of confidence, despite the Angst so prevalent in Conrad. And Angst being very contagious, critics can succumb to it too, hence the drive to defuse it by insisting on safe themes. It is therefore preferable to present Conrad as someone riddled with doubt-or worse-but aware of this dimension of himself and his work and capable of confronting it than to have to admit that Conrad’s fiction is dealing with matters that question that very ‘centredness’. Or, to take an example from the author’s work; rather accept the unpleasant truth about imperialism and selfish ambition in late nineteenth-century Europe, faced, we are assured, by Kurtz-‘the horror! the horror!’—than to have to admit that we may not know what ‘the horror’ is at all.
