ABSTRACT
This chapter complements the discussion in the previous chapter by focusing on the role of emotion in autobiographical remembering in The Shadow-Line . It explores how certain emotions – such as depression and anxiety – unconsciously reshape the landscape of memory in the past, highlighting the intricate interplay between memory, emotions, and bodily experiences. This chapter suggests that affective experiences in this autobiographical novel act as a point of contact between Conrad's younger seafaring self and his writing self. Emotion demands movement, crossing, and final resolution, just as the young captain hopes for the wind to set his ship in motion. For Conrad, emotion is not a static psychological entity, but a dynamic force that continually interacts and exchanges with desires, imaginations, and dreams, leading to both rational and irrational actions. The key metaphor in the text – crossing the shadow-line – is not a mere metaphorical expression of the young captain crossing the line of naivety to reach maturity, but transcends the confines of the text to indicate the crossed boundary between the young captain's sea voyage and the aged writer's process of writing the text. Ultimately, The Shadow-Line is transformed into a narrative of emotions that depicts how the past and the present conflate, and how historical and cultural incidents secretly seep into the expressions of emotional states.
