The Conradian Legacy in the Novels of Graham Greene

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 1999 in the subject Literature - Comparative Literature, language: English, abstract: Joseph Conrad - a Pole by birth - is a writer who has exercised a very potent influence on his generation, but his impact has expanded well beyond. He has inspired English, American, African and Polish novelists and poets. One of his staunch admirers was the young English novelist, Graham Greene (1904-1991). However if Conrads integrity as a writer with a strong moral sense won the attention of both the reading public and many reviewers, the positive response that welcomed Greenes first published novel The Man Within (1929) almost died out with the novels that came next, The Name of Action (1930) and Rumour at Nightfall (1931). Greene himself attributed the failure of these novels to Conrads too great and too disastrous influence. Although Greene recaptured some of that praise by the remarkable craftsmanship of Stamboul Train (1932), many critics contested any claim to Greene being a leading writer of his generation, hence excluded him from the literary arena for many years. Critics were reluctant to recognize Greenes literary worth first because they believed that he was not exactly an original writer; second, because the inclusion of religious themes in his works, while it arrested the attention of some Catholic writers, disconcerted many others. In this comparative study of Conrads The Secret Agent and Greenes Its A Battlefield, and Conrads Heart of Darkness and Greenes A Burnt-Out-Case, I shall attempt to investigate and elucidate what in Conrad exercised such power and fascination on Greene. The focus of interest is to try and find answers to these questions: has Greenes vow never again to read a novel by Conrad which he kept for more than a quarter of a century been successful? Has Greene succeeded in writing off the ghost of Conrad? If not, do the borrowings from Conrad undermine Greenes writings in any way? Such study should