B. Traven and Joseph Conrad: Ideological Contrasts

Abstract

In Traven’s view, Joseph Conrad stands out among the popular writers that had contributed the most to promote this negative picture of the crew. Conrad, who had died the previous year, was not only a great literary artist, he was also one of the most popular writers of sea fiction, particularly in the United States of America. Whether in retrospect or not, Conrad became Traven’s main target: that is, the author whose presentation of the ship as social organisation had to be deconstructed, to be “outdone,” as he assertively proclaims. But, the fact is that The Nigger of the “Narcissus: A Tale of the Sea” (orig. pub. 1897) –the one novel by Conrad in which the crew is given greater prominence than in any other work of the Polish-born author– stages a process of political conflict between masters (captain and officers) and slaves (the deck-hands) that is only precariously solved at the end through some degree of ideological closure.