Eksperyment Conrada (rozważania socjologa wokół powieści Josepha Conrada W oczach Zachodu)
Conrad’s experiment (refl ections of a sociologist on Joseph Conrad’s novel Under Western Eyes)

Author(s): Krzysztof Łęcki
Subject(s): 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: sociology of literature; thought experiment; morality; cognitive dissonance; authoritarianism
Summary/Abstract: Joseph Conrad’s novel Under Western Eyes is treated as a form of a thought experiment.It is an attempt to interpret the situational dilemmas of an individual in an authoritariansocial system, and not – as it happens more oft en in the sociology of literature – thecharacteristics of an antiutopia system. Considering philosophical analyses (Arendt,Camus), historical testimonies (Custine), individual cases (Kronsky) and literary contexts(Hesse, Borges, Musil) as the system of reference, the author tries to reconstruct thepossible motivation (and rationalization) of the change in attitudes of an individualplaced between the imperative of conscience and the police state.

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