Balázs Bartalos

Psychology and Politics in Nostromo: Permanently -topical Questions in Joseph Conrad's Masterpiece Balázs Bartalos

Not even Joseph Conrad might have thought that his novel, Nostromo, will be so topical at the beginning of the 21st century as it was more than a hundred years ago. It was first published in 1904, but it seems that the fundamental problems of the world have not changed during the last century. The novel's central concern, material interests and its impact on people and politics, is an invariably exciting topic to study. Conrad's masterpiece, however, is so complex that the message can only be understood if the upper layers of the adventurous story are ripped. And this is the aim of this book. It deals with the political aspects of Conrad's novel and tries to dig deep into the main thoughts and concerns of the story to deduce general ideas from the complicated structures. The mission of the work is to prove that material interests have a serious effect on human personality and from a wider perspective, it can even change the social and political matters of a whole country. The last chapter contains some pedagogical ideas on employing authentic literature in TEFL classes.