Conrad: Heart of Darkness (Volume F)

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)

• Polish Ukraine• sailor• Heart of Darkness• Lord Jim• separation/exile• skepticism

Congo River, 1890

Congo Peoples

• “to make you see”

• delayed decoding

• literary impressionism

• (un)reliable narrator?

• unresolved conclusion

• symbolism

Heart of Darkness

“Darkness”

• symbolism• unenlightened state• indigenous population

Berlin Conference

• Scramble for Africa• nationalism• raw materials: ivory,

copper, rubber, tea• 1884–85• “land grab”• slavery• “civilizing mission” • David Livingstone• “white man’s burden”

“I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,” he began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would like best to hear; “yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap” (p. 21).

Frame Narrative

• Marlow as hero, as Conrad’s alter ego?

• Kurtz as demigod

• river as underworld

• consciousness, sub-consciousness

• universalism

• archetypal journey

• “uncivilized”

Mythology

Patriarchal Approaches

Chinua Achebe• 1975 lecture, “An

Image of Africa”• metaphor criticized• Africa marginalized in

Conrad’s work• language and gesture• word choice:

inscrutable, incomprehensible

• who is racist—characters, or Conrad?

In his book King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild argues that Conrad’s story about a journey into the heart of darkness is not simply a literary metaphor for discovering the brutish consciousness of the individual. Instead, Hochschild says, it is a direct political commentary on imperialism based on Conrad’s own experiences in the Congo. Do you believe that the novel functions better as a metaphor or as criticism?

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

Heart of Darkness is presented as a frame narrative. In other words, an unknown narrator who knows Marlow tells the story of Marlow telling his own story. Explain how this frame narrative affects how the audience understands the events of the story. Why might Conrad want that effect?

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