Conrad and Masculinity

Gender and the Disciplined Body 103
state ... [nor] a general system of domination exerted by one group
over another ... power must be understood ... as the multiplicity of
force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and
which constitute their own organization [and] as the process
which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations, transforms,
strengthens, or reverses them. 13
Here Foucault offers a concept of power which is not limited to individuals
or groups having power over each other, but emphasizes
impersonal processes and forces. When Klein states that Nostromo
comes to occupy the feminine predicament, she describes this in terms
of his being used by certain individuals and groups: ‘Persons in this
power axis of economics and politics control Nostromo, too ... He is
their man and they use him as carelessly as he used the Morenita’ (FP,
110). Yet beyond the violation or exploitation of individual bodies by
other individuals or groups, the novel seems to reveal the existence of
structures of power which discipline bodies in a way which is impersonal,
although it may be ‘intentional’ as Foucault explains:
Power relations are both intentional and nonsubjective ... There is
no power that is exercised without a series of aims and objectives.
But this does not mean that it results from the choice or decision
of an individual subject ... neither the caste which governs, nor the
groups which control the state apparatus, nor those who make the
most important economic decisions direct the entire network of
power that functions in a society (and makes it function); the rationality
of power is characterised by tactics ... (the local cynicism of
power), tactics which ... end by forming comprehensive systems:
the logic is perfectly clear, the aims decipherable, and yet it is often
the case that no one is there to have invented them. 14
This seems strikingly apt in relation to Sulaco, with its governing class
(the Blancos, during certain periods), its groups controlling the state
apparatus (the Monterists, during other periods), its individuals
making economic decisions (Gould, Holroyd), all of whom are powerful
in different ways, yet none of whom seem to control or determine
the ultimate consequences of power, 15 and with its local cynicism
(Nostromo, Sotillo, Fuentes). These elements make up a system
beyond the understanding of those who operate it.
Nostromo depicts a pre-modern society (the old Costaguana of aristocrats
and bandits) emerging into modernity (the new Occidental