The True Self as Social Solidarity in Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and The Shadow-Line

Abstract

Seeking to contribute to the recent scholarly work on Girardian mimesis, this article adds a Winnicottian dimension in the form of a dialectic between false and true selves to an analysis of two works by Joseph Conrad. Scholars such as Nidesh Lawtoo and Martha Reineke elaborate, widen, and interrogate what Girard himself has written about positive mimesis. This project will build on Reineke’s work of bringing Rene Girard and D.W. Winnicott together and apply the central claim about creative mimesis to the social dynamic and the liminal crises experienced by young captains in The Secret Sharer and The Shadow-Line. The Secret Sharer shows a novice captain’s creative individualism moving in the direction of group solidarity, but only to the extent that he forms a coterie with his psychological double. The discussion of The Shadow-Line details how another new captain’s initial rejection of the false self, coupled with his inability to control only through a mindset of heroic individualism, results in a socially situated true self in solidarity with crew members. In this way, the novella completes the dialectic by showing communal solidarity to be the result of a shift from destructive mimesis (rejection of the false self) to creative mimesis (acceptance of the false self as a delimiter to creative individualism and true self life) in the relationships with others. This article will conclude by connecting the above claims to Conrad’s aesthetic ideas.