The
Joseph Conrad
Foundation

Lublin Conference 1996


The Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (UMCS) in Lublin, Poland held its Second International Conrad Conference the first nine days of September, 1996 under the direction of Prof. Wieslaw Krajka. There were 48 participants and 40 papers were read. Selected papers from the conference are to be published in the series Conrad: Eastern and Western Perspectives jointly by the host university in cooperation with East European Monographs of Boulder, Colorado and the Columbia University Press of New York.

Section I: Conrad's Polish Contexts offered "Conrad's Parents" by Zdzislaw Najder (University of Warsaw), "Conrad's Political Consciousness and the January Uprising" by Addison Bross (Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), Karl Kosek (UMCS) spoke on The Shadow Line and Poland's road to freedom, Jean Szczypien (SUNY, New York) on the echoes of Adam Mickiewicz's "Konrad Wallenrod" in Almayer's Folly and A Personal Record, Anna and Wieslaw Krajka (UMCS) presented a two part study of "Yanko Goral" and Polish romanticism and Stefan Zabierowski (Silesian University, Wroclaw, Poland) spoke on Polish views of Lord Jim.

Section II: Conrad's East European Contexts included Carola Kaplan (California State University, Pomona) on Conrad's East European views of England, Phyllis Toy (University of Southern Indiana, Evansville) spoke on looking back from "Razumov" to Under Western Eyes, Wanda Perczak (Nicolas Copernicus University, Torun, Poland) on " Razumov","Azef" and others, Loretta Stec (San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA) on the Russian novels of Conrad and Rebecca West, Mitzi C. Anderson (University of South Africa, Pretoria) on Crime and Punishment and Under Western Eyes, Monika Majewska (UMCS) on Stevie as Conrad's Christ and Katarzyna Sokolowska (UMCS) on character creation in Conrad and Turgenev.

Section III: Conrad's Imperial Contexts included Flora Nogueira Diniz (Federal University of Ouro Preto, Mariana, Brazil) on colonial discourse in Heart of Darkness, Solange Ribeiro de Oliveira of the same university on the woman in white and the man in motley in Almayer's Folly and Heart of Darkness, James N. Brown and Patricia M. Sant (Macyuarie University, Sydney, Australia) on imperialism and the East in "Karain," Jennifer Margulis (Emory University, Atlanta, GA) on the shadow line of postcolonialism in Conrad and Amitav Ghosh, Steven Trout (Fort Hays State Univesity, Hays, KS) on language in Lord Jim, Maria Zanaida B. French (University of the Phillipines in the Visayas, Ho ilo City) on Conrad's white man in the East and Elmer A. Ordonez (University of the Phillipines, Quezon City) on Conrad's reception in the Phillipines.

Section IV: Conrad's Sea Contexts consisted of Wojciech Kozak (UMCS) on the special axiology of the land, sea and ships in Conrad's maritime prose and Carl Schaffer (University of Scranton, Scranton, PA) on Legat and the golem figure in Jewish folklore.

Section V: Conradian Ethics and Philosophy heard Lalitha Ramamurthi (All Saints College, Travandrum, India) on politics and humanism in Nostroma, Alexander Houen (Camdbridge University, Cambridge, England) on the phenomenology of terrorism in The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes, Nursel Icoz (Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey) on engagement in view of ideal individualism and betrayal, Anita Matthew (University of Goa, Goa, India) on Conrad's understanding of evil in Heart of Darkness and Heliena M. Krena (Fu Jen University, Taipei, Taiwan) on Conrad's space in Taiphoon.

Section VI: Comparative Perspectives heard J. Gill Holland and Jeremiah I. Putnam (Davidson College, Davidson, NC) on Lord Jim and the interdisciplinary study of Victorian literature and science, Catherine LeGouis (Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA) on Heart of Darkness and Zola's Germinale, Patricia Poniatowska (University of Wroclaw, Poland) on The Sound and the Fury and Heart of Darkness,

(University of Scranton, Scranton, PA) (University of Scranton, Scranton, PA) on Heart of Darkness and A Passage To India, Barbara Koc (University of Lodz) on Faulkner inspired by Conrad and Rolf Lass (University of Warwick, England and University of Nicosia, Cyprus) on Conrad and the science fiction of Greg Bear.

Section VII: The Art of Conrad's Narrative consisted of Hans Ulrich Seeber (University of Stuttgart, Germany) on the presentation of voice in Heart of Darkness, Michael Greaney (Lancaster University, England) on Conrad and listening, Artur Kumar (Ch Chiron Singh University, Meerut, India) on objectivism in Lord Jim, Bridgett Donnellan (University of Durban-Westville, South Africa) on picture as text in Conrad and Jorge Sacido Romero (University of Santiago de Compastella, A Coruna, Spain) on the shorter tales of Joseph Conrad.

Section VIII: Sexuality concluded the presentations with Richard Ruppel's (Viterbo College, La Crosse, WI) "Beyond "The Secret Sharer": Conrad and the spirit of Oscar Wilde.

Editor's Note:
The Lublin conference was organized by the Conrad Studies Workshop in the Literature Department of the Institute of English Philology of the UMCS. This information was published in lieu of a detailed report by Wojciech Kozak, Wieslaw Krajka and Katarzyna Sokolowska in Year 6, No. 5/6 (39/40) of the UMCS Wiadomosci Uniwersyteckie (University News), (ISSN 1233-216X) October, 1996. The re- translation offered here is, to put it as mildly as possible, rough. Abstracts of the papers read at the Lublin conference will be published in Concepts as they come to hand, beginning with that of Phyllis Toy of the University of Southern Indiana (Evansville) who spoke in Section II of the conference.



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