num_pages: 158
description: The Discerning Narrator sheds new light on Joseph Conrads controversial critique of modernity and modernization by reading his work through an Aristotelian lens. The book proposes that we need Aristotle  a key figure in Conrads education  to recognize the profound significance of Conrads artistic vision. Offering Aristotelian analyses of Conrads letters essays and four works of fiction Alexia Hannis illuminates the philosophical roots and literary implications of Conrads critique of modernity. Hannis turns to Aristotles ethical formulations to trace what she calls the discerning narrator in Conrads a compassionate yet sceptical guide to appraising character and conduct. The book engages with past and current Conrad scholarship while drawing from Aristotles Poetics Politics  and Nicomachean Ethics as well as classical scholars to offer original philosophical analyses of major and understudied Conrads works. Drawing on Aristotle Hannis provides a fresh context for making sense of Conrads self-differentiation from modernity. As a result The Discerning Narrator provides an affirmation of literatures invitation to wonder about the possibilities inherent in human nature including the potential for painful depravity heroic excellence and ordinary human happiness.
language: English
title: The Discerning Narrator: Conrad, Aristotle, and Modernity
publisher: University of Toronto Press