Testimony on trial : Conrad, James, and the contest of modernism / Brian Artese.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1 "Speech Was of No Use": Conrad and the Critical Abjection of Testimony -- 2 Theatre of Incursion and Unveiling I: Home -- 3 Overhearing Testimony: James in the Shadow of Sentimentalism -- 4 'Abominable Confidence' from The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' to Lord Jim : Toward a New Sympathetic Novel -- 5 'Theatre of Incursion and Unveiling II: Empire.

"Who is a more authoritative source of information -- the person who experiences it firsthand, or a more 'impartial' authority? In the late nineteenth century, testimony became a common feature of literary works both fact and fiction. But with the rise of new journalism, the power of testimony could be undermined by anonymous, institutional voices -- a Victorian subversion which continues to this day.

Testimony on Trial examines the conflicts over testimony through the eyes of two of its major combatants, Joseph Conrad and Henry James. Brian Artese finds an overlooked yet direct inspiration for Heart of Darkness in the anti-testimonial scheming of Henry Morton Stanley and the New York Herald. Through new readings of works including Lord Jim and The Portrait of a Lady, Artese demonstrates how the cultural conditions that worked against testimony fed into a nascent conflict about the meaning of modernism itself."--Pub. desc.

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