This critical collection, edited by Karin Hansson, contains papers given at an international conference organized by the Department of Humanities of the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, Sweden in September 1997. To academic teachers and students with an interest in colonial of postcolonial studies, Joseph Conrad’s writing is central, historically, generically, and symbolically. The studies show how his oeuvre constitutes a common frame of reference internationally and how it relates in various ways to a number of writers, from his contemporaries to those of today. Illustrating the scope and variety of today’s criticism, the contributions deal with works from different phases of Conrad’s writing career, including his shorter fiction and novels as well as non-fiction.