"Men separate from women and domesticity": empire builders, coolie laborers, and the imperialist economy in Joseph Conrad's "Typhoon"

This article proposes a new perspective to examine the moral and political aspect of the imperial economy as represented in "Typhoon" by Joseph Conrad, that is, the separation of the white crew as well as the Chinese coolie laborers from women and domesticity. Aboard the Nan-Shan steamer is a men-only world: all the white crew members are either bachelors or heads of household freed from domesticity, while the Chinese coolies are all men separated from their families too. It is the colonialist machine that has similarly but unequally entrapped the British empire builders and the Chinese coolie laborers together into the imperialist economy symbolized by the typhoon. Neither the Victorian ideal of domesticity nor the traditional Confucian emphasis on familial integrity are able to withstand the aggressive expansion of imperialist economy. By focusing on the relationship between imperialism and domesticity, this reading of the novella brings forth a nuanced understanding of Conrad's criticism of imperialism.