A Critical Comparison: Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" & Antjie Krog's "Country of My Skull" with insight from Robert J.C. Young's "Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction" (original) (raw)
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Heart of darkness : A Post Colonial Study
Postcolonial literature consists predominantly of works written over the last few decades, there are still many discussions concerning the status of authors who wrote at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of these, one of the most frequently discussed is, of course, Joseph Conrad, whom most contemporary scholars see as being one of the first postcolonial writers — someone who criticized the sometimes ruthless and pointless colonial expansion of European empires and the concept of the “White Man’s Burden.” The works which attract particular attention are, of course, those which relate to Conrad’s African experience: An Outpost of Progress and the excellent, albeit over exploited novella Heart of Darkness.
Oppression and Resistance in Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Postcolonial Study
Studies in Indian Place Names, 2020
This paper aims to analyze the themes of oppression and resistance in Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902) by tracing forms of oppression and resistance depicted through the novella. The purpose of this paper is to approach oppression of Conrad's Heart of Darkness from postcolonial study. It traces European colonialism in Africa. It depicted the people who affected and suffered from European colonization. This paper deals with postcolonial criticism that focuses on the oppression of the colonizers over colonized people. Conrad showed his readers the realities of colonialism and how it affects the oppressed as well as the oppressors.
"Exterminate All the Brutes!": Colonialism and Racism in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) is among the best works of literature of the 20th Century. The story of the journey up the Congo river in Africa, made by a sailor who was incharge of collecting the ivory from the colony can be read through several different criticalperspectives. The goal of this thesis is to apply a postcolonial reading (based, mainly, onEdward Said’s theory of Orientalism) in order to perceive how Conrad portrayed imperialismin the Belgian colony of Congo, as well as the mechanisms the author used to construct theblack African characters in his narrative. The narrative showed to be a reflection of the web of ambiguities and ambivalences that characterized the imperial ideology – theory and practice being so distant from each other.
Undoubtedly, Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness has been billed as a work of timeless importance. The novella is considered not only as an usher of modernity in the field of English novel but also a landmark in the significant development of the study of colonialism and postcolonialism. Since its publication in 1899, the novella has baffled the scholars and received high acclamation from every corner of literary sphere. The novella depicts the European colonial masters as an agent of colonialism, imperialism and racism. However, primary aim of my paper is to find out the nature of European colonial exploitation in the African Congo Basin from postcolonial perspective. I have applied the concepts and ideas of Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Franz Fanon and Homi K. Bhabha as the methodology for the purpose of postcolonial reading of the text, Heart of Darkness.
Post-Colonial Analysis of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Tarih kültür ve sanat araştırmaları dergisi, 2013
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness tells the journey of Marlow through the African jungle and his search for the European Kurtz who exploits the natives by imposing violence on them. It is mainly based upon Conrad's own experience in Congo when he learned how Europeans exploited and traded the natives for their own benefits during his own journey. The book is regarded as an attack on imperialism and criticizes immoral treatments of the European colonizers in Africa in the 19 th century. Keith Booker states that "the book deals with issues such as imperialism, capitalism, race, and gender that were very much at the forefront of the turn-of-the century European mind. Conrad's ambivalent treatment of these issues is extremely representative of the way they were treated in any number of European discourses of the time" (217). Besides, Chinua Achebe in his An "Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" comments that "Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as 'the other world', the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality" (338). Although Achebe puts forward that the novel displays colonialism, I consider that Conrad does not intend to write it to appreciate colonialism and therefore the purpose of this paper is to approach Conrad's Heart of Darkness from post-colonial perspective by taking European imperialism and colonialism over Africa into consideration in order to clarify how Conrad has
UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST REVIEW. Literary and Cultural Studies Series, 2022
Despite accusations of racism and of upholding colonialism, Heart of Darkness reveals the problematic nature of the imperial enterprise. The dichotomy between superior versus inferior / us versus them / self versus other, embedded in colonial discourse, becomes challenging when considering that the foray into the Dark Continent reveals more about the character of Europeans. The outward journey of exploration of the still partially unknown Africa is mirrored by an inward journey that reveals the degenerate nature of the European identity. The geographical journey is doubled by an anthropological one towards our earliest origins as well as a psychological one towards the primitive self.
The Colonial Evils Depicted in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
New Literaria
Written in the colonial context, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a potential exploration of the nature of colonial evils and hypocrisy. Set in an atmosphere of gloomy darkness dominated by criminality towards humanity the narrator reveals his agonising experience and realisation regarding organised plunder of the colonial human/natural resources. The novella published in book format in 1902, is partly based on the writer's experience in the Congo basin where he was appointed a captain of a river steamer named Roi Des Belges in 1890. The novella published during heyday of European colonialism represents in its multi-layered capacity some distinct forms of evils associated with Colonialism. As part of postcolonial study this article would like to explore forms of such colonial evils. Three distinct forms of evil are prominently found in the novella: the base, primitive instincts like lust and greed associated with individual take the shape of evil in some characters; the banality of ordinary mankind whose wilful silence and assumed denial helps the evil to grow; and the colonial European hypocrisy and trading secrets shows its evil aspects in Congo. Although Heart of Darkness has highlighted more the primitive and base evil, the other colonial evils have been depicted in its ugly shape through the images, metaphor and phrases in the novella. Going through these colonial evils this article would like to contribute to broader understanding of inclusive humanism.
2015
Imperialism in Central Africa Revealed in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. This research aims to observe the idea of imperialism felt by the characters revealed in the novel, reveal the impacts o imperial traits affecting the character’s performances throughout the story, and find out the impacts of imperialism in Belgian Congo. The data were collected by using library research and it analyzed by applying sociological approach proposed by Swingewood (1972) who revealed three classifications of sociology of literature. In this case, the researcher focused on the classification of sociology as the mirror of age and Orientalism theory by Edward Said (1977) used to reveal colonialism text. The results of this research show that there are some ideas of racism and the influences of the Belgian colonial power causes imperialism in Congo. Imperialism phenomena described in the novel of Heart of Darkness affects on the different treatment to ‘black’ skin people, the greediness and the desi...
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is a complex text that critiques European imperialism but also reflects the colonial ideologies it seeks to expose. From a postcolonial perspective, the novella reflects and reinforces colonial ideologies through its Orientalist portrayal of Africa and Africans. Particularly using Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, explains how the West constructs the “Orient” as the opposite of itself, irrational, savage, and inferior. The novella reinforces binary oppositions that portray the colonized world as savage and barbaric to the Western colonizers to depict Africa as a mysterious, dangerous "Other." The story unfolds through Marlow, who embarks on a journey to the Congo, exposing the exploitation and horrors of European colonial practices. Furthermore, the novella’s relevance to contemporary discussions of race and representation, as well as its intersection with theories by Homi K. Bhabha and Frantz Fanon, reveals how colonial narratives continue to shape perceptions of non-Western cultures. However, this essay critically evaluates how these binaries undermine Heart of Darkness as both a critique and a product of colonialism, emphasizing the implications of Orientalism in the text and beyond.
This essay will revolve around the critical reception of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The focus will be on three primary sources: firstly, the early critical reception and how the novella was received when it was originally published in 1902, secondly, Chinua's famous critique in 1977 when he called Conrad a racist and condemned both the author and the novella, and thirdly, Said's defiance and contextualization of Conrad's novella in 1992. The essay will explore how the critics have been influenced and from what standpoints they have entered into the debate on Conrad and show how the discussion has changed over time. Furthermore, it will show that the early responses ignore the 'race' aspect because 'race-thinking' was seen as something natural. It will also explain why Achebe might feel so strongly against Conrad. He is after all fighting for a strong African identity after the colonies gained their independence. Said defends and contextualizes Conrad as a creature of his time. Finally, the essay will discuss and contrast the critics, concluding that each critique is highly influenced by the time-period in which it was written.