VARIANTS OF ALIENATION IN CONRAD’S VICTORY

The paper deals with various manifestations of alienation in Joseph Conrad’s novel Victory (1915), primarily by referring to the classification put forward by the American sociologist Melvin Seeman. The introductory part provides a brief historical overview of major theoretical perspectives on alienation as a social and psychological phenomenon, as well as a discussion of Seeman’s approach to it. By applying these theories to the analysis of Conrad’s novel, the paper aims to demonstrate that the motif of alienation is predominant in Victory, denoting a condition which plagues not only the novel’s protagonist, Axel Heyst, but numerous other characters as well. The same as many other authors in the period of modernism, Conrad was preoccupied with the problem of an alienated individual in the contemporary society, which makes the discussion of this motif essential for understanding his artistic vision.