In this volume of L'Epoque Conradienne are published most of the

papers presented during the 2006 Limoges Conference entitled «Femininity,

a privilege - not feminism, an attitude» *. The "feminine" in Joseph

Conrad's fictions: from ideology to a poetics of heterogeneity. Colleagues

from France, Britain, Poland, Norway, South Africa and Canada offered new

light on Conrad's position on the question of the feminine - a question which

took a new turn at the beginning of the 20^th century, when Modernism

modified the perception of gender divisions.

A majority of articles deal with the question of clichés and stereotypes

and the way Conrad allows the emergence of new representations of

gendered identities and of a sexualized worldview - characteristics not often

associated with Conrad's fiction. Several also tackle the question of the

relationship between patriarchy and imperialism: does his critical approach to

imperialism address or obliterate the question of patriarchy?

Finally, all tend to prove that there is definitely a place for feminist

criticism and the question of feminine writing in Conradian studies - pointing

out that our reading of Conrad's fiction is modified if we scrutinize

" femininity " (the " privilege ") with the tools of the " attitude ", " feminism ".

Such approaches pave the way for a further exploration of that field.

* Chance , Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1986, p. 127