Jospeh Conrad & Sarawak: How if Patusan Were in Patusan?.
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
Jospeh Conrad & Sarawak: How if Patusan Were in Patusan?. |
|
Author :
Patrick Tourchon |
|
Abstract:
Joseph Conrad, who discovered the shores of Borneo while he was serving at sea, has used them as a setting for at least three novels between 1895 and 1919. This enduring terest explains why, though he never set foot in the white rajahs’ territory, he showed in his letters a constant concern about what was going on in Sarawak. Yet, scholars generally assume that the Brookes’ State has never been used as a setting by Conrad. This article questions such a position and envisages the possibility for the second part of the most famous of Conrad’s books. Lord Jim, to be more than just alluding to Sarawak and some episodes of her history. In particular, it aims at showing that the fictional “Patusan” (the place where Jim becomes “Lord” Jim), might be the actual Patusan (the historical Sarawakian fort on the Batang Lupar River where the HMS Dido led by Captain Henry Keppel had to fight on behalf of James Brooke in 1844). But, by doing so, it will also show Conrad’s way of processing the data he could get about Sarawak under a different light.
|
| DOI: XXXX |
|
How to cite:
Patrick Tourchon. (2001). Jospeh Conrad & Sarawak: How if Patusan Were in Patusan?. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LVI (77): 139-164 |
|
References
|
