Interrogating the Shadow Line between Joseph Conrad and Amitav Ghosh

10.30095/SYJH.200812.0003

Hillary I. LaMont

康拉德 ； 暗影邊界 ； 埃米塔瓦•格什 ； 暗影界線 ； 地域 ； Joseph Conrad ； The Shadow-Line ； Amitav Ghosh ； The Shadow Lines ； place

中山人文學報

26期（2008 / 12 / 01）

33 - 45

英文

此篇論討論地域(place)其寶是研究地理、歷史和哲學的場域。首先，由後殖民的視角來討諭康拉德《暗影邊界》(The Shadow line)敘事者的地域觀，緊接著用後殖民的角度探討埃米塔瓦•格什(Amitav Ghosh)在《暗影界線》(The Shadow Lines)敘事者所處的時代脈絡。康拉德小說裡頭敘事者從曼谷遊走到新加坡，從原先一成不變的理想主義變成物質主義，兩個地方，兩樣哲學，唯一差異就是物質的不同。相反地，埃米塔瓦•格什(Amitav Ghosh)《暗影界線》的敘事者卻是解脫世俗的物質，開拓全新的大千世界，他任憑想像在不同時空穿梭自如，兼容並蓄。相互對照之下《暗影界線》裡敘事者的旅行到頭來只是原本理想中轉換，《暗影界線》的敘事者卻是徹悟到他其實大可任憑想像馳騁，家在各地，無處不是歸宿。這種家在四方的觀點也同時昇華了家傳統單一對立的概念。

This essay examines the concept of place as a geographical, historical, and philosophical orienting point. The idea of place is first explored from the colonial perspective of Joseph Conrad's narrator in The Shadow-Line; this exploration is followed by a consideration of place in the post-colonial context within which the narrator of Amilav Ghosh's The Shadow Line is situated. In his journey from one place to another (Bangkok to Singapore), the narrator of Conrad's novella journeys from a fixed perspective of idealism to one of materialism, two philosophical places, the differences between which are merely material. Conversely, the narrator of Ghosh's The Shadow Lines liberates himself from a fixed perspective of materialism and enters into a kaleidoscopic worldview iii which he can imaginatively inhabit any place and any perspective. While the narrator of The Shadow Line's personal journey amounts to nothing more than a substitution of one philosophical place for another, the narrator of The Shadow Lines comes to the empowering realization that hi ability to imaginatively place himself anywhere allows him to be at home everywhere… and to be at home everywhere is to transcend the idea of place as oppositional and exclusive.

1. Oxford English Dictionary
2. Oxford English Dictionary
3. Oxford English Dictionary
4. Oxford English Dictionary
5. Bagchi, Nivedita.(1993).The Process of Validation in Relation to Materiality and Historical Reconstruction in Amitav….Modern Fiction Studies,39(1),187-202.
6. Benson, Carl.(1954).Conrad`s Two Stories of Initiation.PMLA,69,46-56.
7. Conrad, Joseph.(2003).The Shadow-Line.New York:Oxford UP.
8. Cresswell, Tim.(2004).Place: A Short Introduction.Malden, MA:Blackwell.
9. Dutta, P.K.(1990).Studies in Heterogeneity: A Reading of Two Recent Indo-Anglian Novels.Social Scientist,18(3),61-70.
10. Ghosh, Amintav.(1988).The Shadow Lines.New York:Penguin.
11. Hawthorn, Jeremy.,Joseph Conrad(2003).The Shadow-Line.New York:Oxford UP.
12. hooks, bell.(1990).Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics.Boston:South End P.
13. Huttunen, Tuomas.(2000).Narrations and Silence in the Works of Amitav Ghosh.World Literature Written in English,38(2),28-43.
14. Khatri, C.L.(2001).The Narrative Technique of Amitav Ghosh`s The Shadow Lines.Zenith: A Literary Magazine,7,50-55.
15. Mongia, Padmini.(1993).Postcolonial Identity and Gender Boundaries in Amitav Ghosh`s The Shadow Lines,20(1),225-228.
16. Mongia, Padmini.(1992).Postcolonial Identity and Gender Boundaries in Amitav Ghosh`s The Shadow Lines,19(3),225-228.
17. Relph, E.C.(1976).Place and Placelessness.London:Pion.
18. Sen, Asha.(1997).Crossing Boundaries in Amitav Ghosh`s The Shadow Lines.Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies,5(1),46-58.
19. Sherry, Norman.(1964).Exact Biography` and The Shadow-Line.PMLA,79(5),620-625.
20. Singh, Sushila.(1992).The Double Self in Amitav Ghosh`s The Shadow Lines.Language Forum: A Half-Yearly Journal of Language and Literature,18(1-2),135-142.
21. Sircar, Ajanta.(1991).Individualizing History: The 'Real' Self in the Shadow Lines.Social Scientist,19(2),33-46.
22. Tuan, Yi-fu.(1977).Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.Minneapolis:U of Minnesota P.
23. Wassef, Hind.(1998).Beyond the Divide: History and National Boundaries in the Work of Amitav Ghosh.Alif Journal of Comparative Poetics,18,75-95.