Nostromo
Nostromo is a published in 1904, complex political novel by the English writer Joseph Conrad.
Action
Setting for the novel is the fictional Republic Costaguana. It is a cliché of South America, civil wars and dictatorships are constantly changing in its history. The fictional character Decoud says of this Republic "with a quote attributed to Simon Bolivar " ( Wolter ), she was " not to govern. Who worked for his release, the sea has plowed ".
As a model for the city of Sulaco, which plays a special role in the novel as a port city, Conrad served the port city of Cartagena in Colombia, whom he met on his first trips as Schiffsmaat on French ships in the Caribbean and South America volatile.
The material for the design of the scenes of the novel, Conrad received mainly through the personal advice and the books of his friend Cunninghame Graham, who had taken part in several revolutions in South America.
In this politically -scale novel Conrad creates a very complex view of the history of this fictional Republic. The western province of Sulaco has the Golfo Placido a very profitable silver mine. This is the subject of material interests at home and abroad. By a separatist revolution Sulaco is separated from the other parts of the country Costaguanas. The aim of the Revolution, it was also to avoid a coup by a run of populist insurgency. The population of the Republic is separated into layers. The subclass is formed by rural mestizos and Indians. Of this class, both the miners and the soldiers are being recruited for the respective armies by force. For the upper class are from Spain coming, landaristokratischen " Blancos ". They see themselves as the " old-timers " of the country. A third layer form the immigrants who are considered foreigners. These include especially the British and Italians. Of them, the expansion of the port, the railway, and not least the silver mine is dependent. Especially for the Italians Costaguana is rapidly increasing after the failure of the European revolutions of 1848 to the important country of exile and place a diaspora. The group of exiled Italians is in the novel by the family of the old Giorgio Viola, a trailer Garibaldi, symbolizes.
The title character, the sailor Nostromo, is a beached in Sulaco Italians. The Viola's take on Nostromo as an adopted son. He is the foreman of stevedores at the port and is called " Capataz de Cargadores ". He is represented as " a proud great guy and man of violence; a man of the people, which prevails in the service of his masters, the noble Blancos and rich Europeans in Sulaco, about his Cargadores " ( Wolter ). Nostromo works for " his boss " Captain Mitchell. Mitchell heads the local branch of an English ship Company, the OSN Company. O.S.N. is the operator of the port of Sulaco. For Mitchell Nostromo is " one of those priceless subordinates who possess is a justified cause for boasting ." Mitchell called Nostromo as "a kind Universalfaktotum " which he willingly allies to "borrow ". Wolter: " The master-slave dialectic, this figure is underlined by Conrad's ironic play on words with her name: Nostromo refers to the importance Schiffsmaat on his earlier work and is also one attributable to his boss Mitchell corruption of the Italian " Nostro Uomo " ( " Our man " ), an allusion to its usefulness for the powerful. "
Eponym
The name Nostromo and Sulaco were in the films Alien and Aliens - The Return of two spaceships used.
Three-part TV series
1996 filmed under the title " Nostromo - The Treasure in the mountains ". Actor among others Colin Firth. The TV series was implemented shortly after the death of David Lean, as the preparations had progressed as far as a movie.
Literary effect
The Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez wrote in 2007 a novel entitled The Secret History Costaguanas, which is directly related to Conrad's Nostromo.
In episode 38 of the radio drama The Last Detective Jonas, the protagonist is stranded in the state Costaguana.
Bibliographic notice
- Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard, (1904 )