Joseph Conrad i spotkania z Innym. Na podstawie opowiadań Karain – wspomnienie oraz Placówka postępu
Joseph Conrad and Meetings with the Other. On the Basis of Short Stories Karain. A Memory and An Outpost of Progress

Author(s): Daniel Vogel
Subject(s): Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Conrad; Karain; An Outpost of Progress; European;Other;
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the problem of the presence of the Other in two short stories by Joseph Conrad: Karain. A Memory and An Outpost of Progress. The author begins with a brief theoretical background, presenting the names of a few selected scholars who discussed the concept of the Other in their works, to take us further on and show the very complex nature of the Other in the selected works by Joseph Conrad. In Karain not only can we see a changing perspective, but also a relocation of the Other – the title character occupies both the position of I and the Other, depending on a situation and the place where he currently is. In An Outpost of Progress Conrad shows the enormous contrast between the representatives of the Western civilization and the indigenous people living in Africa. Unlike in Karain, here Conrad does not reduce the narrative distance, does not allow the natives to speak for themselves, does not even try to understand them. However, he demonstrates how complex the relations between the white colonizers and the natives were, and, by using irony, how absurd imaginations some Europeans had regarding the civilizing mission of the white man.

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