2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Study of European Colonialism in the l9th century - through stories of a white European who will not return home
| Project/Area Number |
13610689
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
文学一般(含文学論・比較文学)・西洋古典
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| Research Institution | Nagoya Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
OHNUKI Tohru Nagoya Institute of Technology, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (30203871)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | CONRAD / LOTI / a white European who will notreturn / European colonialism / Heart of Darkness / Roman d'un spahi / Robinson Crusoe / Gulliver |
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| Research Abstract |
This study attempts to explore European colonialism-literature in the late 19th century, through making clear the difference between a white European who will return home (e.g. Robinson Crusoe, hero of Robinson Crusoe written by Daniel Defoe) and a white European who will not return (e.g. Gulliver, hero of Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift).
Robinson Crusoe will return home after a very long absence without changing, while Gulliver returns home with having much changed after a voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms. Why has he changed so much? Because he met unimaginable creatures called "Houyhnhnms" and "Yahoos". "Houyhnhnms" and "Yahoos" are described as typical 'otherness' ; Robinson Crusoe has traveled in the world-without-otherness, whereas Gulliver has traveled in the world of others.
Joseph Conrad describes very clearly the difference between travels in the world-without-otherness and travels in the world of others in his most famous novella Heart of Darkness (1899). This novella has two European heroes, Kurtz and Marlow. Kurtz, whom his European fiancee waits for very earnestly, will not return home, while Marlow will return home. The difference is the same difference between Gulliver and Robinson Crusoe. In fact Kurtz encountered unimaginable others in the heart of African continent Marlow left Africa just before he encountered others.
Pierre Loti, who is the most famous exoticism-travel-writer in the late 19th century France, describes the same European hero as Kurtz in his story Le Roman d'un spahi (1881). The French hero called Jean will not leave Africa, though his French fiancee waits for his return expectantly. Why not return? Because Jean too met unimaginable others in the heart of Africa. The others gave him so much shock that he was psychologically destroyed.
Through reading Heart of Darkness and Le Roman d'un spahi chiefly, this study tries to explain what "otherness" is in European colonialism-literature in the late 19th century.
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Research Products
(2 results)
