o:2215 "The Power of the Written Word" Literary Impressionism in Conrad's "Youth" en Jezik, književnost, moć / Language, Literature, Power : zbornik radova, Filozofski fakultet u Nišu, 2023, str. 397-407 Joseph Conrad’s famous statement in the “Preface” to The Nigger of the “Narcissus” – “my task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word... to make you see” – is often taken as a pithy expression of the goal of the impressionist movement in literature. It implies devising a method of writing which would enable the reader to visualize with special acuteness the scenes and events presented in a narrative. However, in his study, What Was Literary Impressionism? (2018), Fried proposes a new understanding of this literary movement which foregrounds the act of writing itself. Based on his analysis of the impressionists’ works, primarily those of Stephen Crane and Joseph Conrad, Fried argues that what these authors “make the reader see” is in fact the very scene of writing. As Fried maintains, the impressionists unwittingly and automatically metaphorize the action of inscription, the materiality and the production of writing, through motifs such as upturned faces, maps and charts, or the relation between visual and aural signifiers. The paper proposes to analyse Conrad’s well-known short story, “Youth”, by referring both to the traditional understanding of the power of words in impressionism, and to Fried’s poststructuralist one, by laying emphasis on the following aspects of the writing process: erasure and inscription. Joseph Conrad, Michael Fried, literary impressionism, impressionist techniques, scene of writing str. 397-407 1552099 10.46630/jkm.2023.25 91552100 130859017 1552100 978-86-7379-618-5 2024-02-05T13:08:58.200Z 44 yes 46 Anja Petrović Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 91762185 0000-0003-3575-5879 Nataša Tučev Filozofski fakultet u Nišu person 10339943 0000-0002-7542-7151 2023 application/pdf str. 397-407 425442 https://phaidrani.ni.ac.rs/o:2215 no yes 18 70 11 1066537 1066576 1556237 18A13 18A1308 397 407 Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 2023