コンラッドとマグリットにおける「狂気」と「赦し」：コンラッド初期小説群の再評価

Abstract

本研究は、ジョウゼフ・コンラッドの第一作『オールメイヤーの阿房宮』(Almayer's Folly)と、画家ルネ・マグリットの同名の絵画(La Folie Almayer)に共通する狂気(folie/madness)への関心 を、ジャック・デリダの言う「狂気」としての「主権なき赦し」という観点から考察することで、アラブとヨー ロッパの対立と和解の可能性を探求するコンラッドの初期小説を、現代の国際社会の緊急の課題である「赦し」 を先取りする革新的な物語として再評価した。今回論文にできなかった他の初期小説群については、本研究を通 して発見したいくつかの切り口を通して今後分析する予定である。 This project rethinks the meaning of the title Almayer's Folly in terms of folie as madness, through a dialogue between Conrad's Almayer's Folly and Rene Magritte's La folie Almayer. We read Conrad's first novel along with Magritte's painting with a focus on the image of the roots the two artworks have in common. In thinking of folie as madness, we draw on Jacques Derrida’s notion of "pure" forgiveness as a form of madness, which forgives only the unforgivable. Unconditional forgiveness can take place, "in the face of the impossible," as we discuss, between Arabs, Malays, Europeans, Muslims and Christians in Conrad's Almayer's Folly. It may indeed be madness, on which the Belgian surrealist has also been brooding all his life in a way evocative of a mysterious gentleman in his own painting, Figure Brooding on Madness. This project gave us perspectives through which we can analyze Conrad's other earlier novels (as well as later ones) along with artists working in different media.