The Nigger of the "Narcissus"
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see".--The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897) by Joseph Conrad |
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The Nigger of the "Narcissus": A Tale of the Forecastle (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the Sea), first published in the United States as The Children of the Sea, is an 1897 novella by Joseph Conrad published in the United Kingdom. The central character is an Afro-Caribbean man who is ill at sea while aboard the trading ship Narcissus heading towards London. Controversy surrounding the use of the word nigger in the title led not only to the altered US title in 1897, but to the 2009 version The N-Word of the Narcissus.
Preface
Conrad's preface to the novel, regarded as a manifesto of literary impressionism, is considered one of his most significant pieces of nonfiction writing. It begins with the line: "A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line".
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