"All Our Stammerings": Two Kinds of Inarticulateness in Conrad

• Published in: ANQ (Lexington, Ky.) Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 23 - 27
• Main Author: Ophir, Ella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 02-01-2014; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: British & Irish literature; Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924); English literature; Literary criticism; Modernism; Perceptions; Rhetoric; Skepticism
• ISSN: 0895-769X; 1940-3364
• DOI: 10.1080/0895769X.2014.880043

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Joseph Conrad's work is its pervasive linguistic skepticism, a "disturbing recognition of the insubstantiality of words" (Billy 278) that is also a feature of his modernism. Conrad's skepticism toward language has at least two aspects. First, a deep distrust arising from the ease with which words, particularly when used with facility, can generate illusions and cast ennobling veils over base motives; the exemplary instance of this is the spellbinding rhetoric of Kurtz. Second, a sense that even when one sincerely attempts to make language cleave to experience, to sensation and perception, its resources are ultimately insufficient.