Description:
Lawtoo offers new readings of Joseph Conrad's novels and the postcolonial and cinematic works that respond to his oeuvre. Lawtoo argues that Conrad's fascination with doubles urges readers to reflect on the two sides of mimesis, that once joined, reveal Conrad's Janus-faced fictions as powerfully relevant to our contemporary world of global violence and environmental crisis.
Brief description:
Nidesh Lawtoo is professor of Modern/Contemporary European Literature and Culture at Leiden University, Netherlands. He previously led the ERC project Homo Mimeticus: Theory and Criticism, and he is the author of several books inaugurating a new theory of mimesis at the intersection of philosophy, literature, and politics, including The Phantom of the Ego (2013), Conrad's Shadow (2016), (New)Fascism (2019), and Violence and the Oedipal Unconscious (2023).
Review Quotes: "Nidesh Lawtoo is a rising figure in Conrad studies, and Conrad's Shadow adds significantly to his reputation. Lawtoo connects the Conradian idea of homo duplex and doubling in his works to mimetic theory and in the process provides a welcome return to a textual-based literary analysis in which Lawtoo gives us new, challenging, and insightful readings of Conrad's works. Conrad's Shadow will likely prove to be one of the most innovative books on Conrad to appear in some time. "
--John Peters, University Distinguished Research Professor, University of North Texas, and general editor of Conradiana