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Review Article| October 01 2003 Responses from the Editors of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism William E. Cain; William E. Cain Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Laurie Finke; Laurie Finke Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Barbara Johnson; Barbara Johnson Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Vincent B. Leitch; Vincent B. Leitch Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google John McGowan; John McGowan Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Jeffrey J. Williams Jeffrey J. Williams Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Pedagogy (2003) 3 (3): 468–478. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-3-3-468 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation William E. Cain, Laurie Finke, Barbara Johnson, Vincent B. Leitch, John McGowan, Jeffrey J. Williams; Responses from the Editors of The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Pedagogy 1 October 2003; 3 (3): 468–478. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-3-3-468 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsPedagogy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2003 Duke University Press2003 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Roundtable: : The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism You do not currently have access to this content.

Conrad's Secret Sharer seems an ideal-indeed, almost too ideal-text on which to base an introduction to the varieties of psychoanalytic criticism. The story is told in the voice of young sea captain uneasy with his first command. His self-doubt is reinforced by the suspicions of the ship's two officers, heavily whiskered first mate and silent young second mate, both of whom are more familiar with the ship than their captain is. The story opens with the sighting of second ship, the Sephora, which is anchored nearby. During the night, the fugitive former first mate of the Sephora, man named Leggatt, swims to the narrator's ship and tells the young captain of having killed man during maneuver designed to save the ship in storm. The narrator conceals Leggatt in his own stateroom until he can bring his ship close to shore (against the better judgment of his officers) so the fugitive can swim safely away. There are thus two ships, two stories, two scenes. In the first, man is murdered; in the second, man escapes. Secret Sharer has long been staple of the classroom-what one colleague has called the New Critic's delight. Every rift is loaded with or-with the omnipresent figure of the double. Yet the double can hardly be the of the text, since it is mentioned on virtually every page: my my secret my second a double captain, says the young narrator again and again.' A more overdetermined figure has seldom appeared in literature. The reader is hardly to be congratulated for noticing its presence-we are not being any cleverer to think of it than the young narrator, for whom the mysterious stranger is clearly symbol of something. Indeed, the narrator puts forth version of just about every interpretive hypothesis: Leggatt is his double, his opposite; his projection, his fantasy, his unconscious; his shadow self, his ego