When Joseph Conrad published Heart of Darkness in 1899, he was probably not expecting that this story keeps so many critics busy for so many years, even after his death in 1924. A huge wave of critics and also defending scholarly journals and books occurred after 1975. In this year the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe accused Conrad of being a racist who portrays such a poor image of Africa as it can be seen as “the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality” (Achebe). This triggered a wave of indignation and authors like Hunt Hawkins, Cedric Watts and Patrick Brantlinger who defended Conrad’s work as a critic on imperialism in which Conrad presents the dreadful reality of colonialism in the Congo at a time in which xenophobia was the most popular understanding of racial differences. But as many authors have already recognized, the derogatory language, the focus on the outward appearance of blacks, and the use of confusing and definitely pejorative adjectives leaves an image of Africa that “can hardly be called flattering” (Hawkins).
Unlike Chinua Achebe, who concentrated his critic on one specific work, Toni Morrison’s critic in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992) was addressed to many authors who included a real or fabricated Africanist presence in their work as a catalyst in the formation of American identity (cf. Morrison). Since it seems that nobody has aligned the representation of the black race in Heart of Darkness with Toni Morrison’s work, I am trying to demonstrate that the Africanist presence was necessary for Joseph Conrad in order to hide his critical imperial stance in a way that it remains readable for the Victorian British audience. Since so many authors have already agreed to read Heart of Darkness as a critic on imperialism, I will not focus on demonstrating this critical stance. This is why I will analyze one paragraph in order to show how the racial superiority is conveyed in the story by constructing racial hierarchies before the general depictions of race in the Victorian British society is presented. In the end, I am trying to find signs of an Africanist presence, how Morrison defines it, in the story of Joseph Conrad and their impact on the protagonist and Kurtz.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
The Imperialistic Victorian Britain & Gothic Images of Race
The Africanist Presence in Heart of Darkness
Conclusion
Works Cited List
Introduction
When Joseph Conrad published Heart of Darkness in 1899, he was probably not expecting that this story keeps so many critics busy for so many years, even after his death in 1924. A huge wave of critics and also defending scholarly journals and books occurred after 1975. In this year the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe accused Conrad of being a racist who portrays such a poor image of Africa as it can be seen as “the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality” (Achebe 308). This triggered a wave of indignation and authors like Hunt Hawkins, Cedric Watts and Patrick Brantlinger who defended Conrad's work as a critic on imperialism in which Conrad presents the dreadful reality of colonialism in the Congo at a time in which xenophobia was the most popular understanding of racial differences. But as many authors have already recognized, the derogatory language, the focus on the outward appearance of blacks, and the use of confusing and definitely pejorative adjectives leaves an image of Africa that “can hardly be called flattering” (Hawkins 333).
Unlike Chinua Achebe, who concentrated his critic on one specific work, Toni Morrison's critic in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992) was addressed to many authors who included a real or fabricated Africanist presence in their work as a catalyst in the formation of American identity (cf. Morrison 6). Since it seems that nobody has aligned the representation of the black race in Heart of Darkness with Toni Morrison's work, I am trying to demonstrate that the Africanist presence was necessary for Joseph Conrad in order to hide his critical imperial stance in a way that it remains readable for the Victorian British audience. Since so many authors have already agreed to read Heart of Darkness as a critic on imperialism, I will not focus on demonstrating this critical stance. This is why I will analyze one paragraph in order to show how the racial superiority is conveyed in the story by constructing racial hierarchies before the general depictions of race in the Victorian British society is presented. In the end, I am trying to find signs of an Africanist presence, how Morrison defines it, in the story of Joseph Conrad and their impact on the protagonist and Kurtz.
The Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
In order to understand how the racial discourse is conveyed in this story and to comprehend how Achebe came to his conclusion that Conrad was a “thoroughgoing racist” (Achebe 313) it is important to see how Conrad constructed clear hierarchies among the white colonizers and the Africans. To accomplish this, I will analyze the scene in which Marlow encounters a group of Africans who seem to suffer so hard under the forced labour as “they were dying slowly” (Conrad 25) which also marks the start of my analyzed paragraph. He goes on in describing the Africans until he wonders how and why one of the African is wearing a “bit of white thread from beyond the seas” (Conrad 26) and where my analyzes ends. I have chosen this passage as it perfectly shows how Marlow, as the narrator, depicts the natives as a homogenous group with an emphasis on their physical appearance while the Europeans are portrayed as individuals with an emphasis on details, which do not exclusively bring into focus their external appearance. The following analysis is based on the methods from Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith in his book Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London and New York: Routledge. 1994. 59-105.
Charlie Marlow is the homodiegetic, intradiegetic narrator who tells the hypodiegetic narrative level of story. This is due to the fact that we have the unknown narrator on the Nellie on the Thames speaking to his companions before Marlow starts telling his story of his journey into the Congo. And his personal involvement in this story makes him a homodiegetic narrator. In regard of the focalization, it becomes clear that the experiencing Marlow, who experiences the journey, tells the story. Therefore, internal focalization is the dominant technique in this part (as it is in the most parts of Heart of Darkness ) which is indicated by the use of past tense. But there is one moment in this paragraph as Conrad shifts to another technique, namely external focalization. As Marlow describes the man who is quite near to him, he is not sure if the native man is already an adult or still a “boy” and comments it with “but you know with them it's hard to tell” (Conrad 25). This shift is indicated through the use of present tense and the use of “you” as Marlow addresses this comment directly to his audience on the Nellie. This is a very common and important technique in this book as it allows speculation about why Conrad used it. But the internal focalizer in this part focalizes the natives from within when he says that “they were dying slowly” (25) or that they “became inefficient” (25). By stating that they were “nearly as thin [as air]” (25) or that the man had “sunken eyes” (25), the internal focalizer does not only focalizes them from within but also from the outside.
Description of setting is realized through expressions like “under the trees” (25) or “greenish bloom” (25). An Identification of character by name cannot be noted as the group of natives are just “they” (25) and the single man is just “the man” (25), “him” (25) and “he” (26). The group is described as “black shadows of disease and starvation” (25) who were “dying slowly” (25) and the single native man “seemed young” (25). The paragraph lacks of reports of what characters did not think or say and the only commentary is the aforementioned expression about the man's age which was uttered to the audience on the Nellie. Therefore, it can be stated that Marlow is highly perceptible. Joseph Conrad himself took part in a journey into the upper Congo in 1890 (cf. Hawkins “Heart of Darkness and Racism” 334) and yet he is still a very unreliable narrator due to his limited knowledge and also his personal involvement in this story as a colonialist. Also his problematic value-scheme indicates his unreliability as the paragraph presents his racist views, which were pretty common during this time, through his degrading and dehumanizing descriptions of the Africans as “they were nothing earthly now” (25) or simply by referring to them as simply “they” (25). It can also be noted that the emphasis lies on the physical appearance of the Africans as he puts the “black bones” (25) or the “black neck” (26) into focus.
Since Marlow is the narrator, characterization is realized through him. He identifies the foreign, homogenous group of Africans as sick through the indirect presentation and external appearance, expressed through comments like “they were dying slowly (25) and “black shadows of disease and starvation” (25). They are further characterized as rather animals than humans because they are “fed on unfamiliar food” (25) and they “became inefficient” (25). Also the single native man is reduced to a pitiful and horrible appearance of a human-being as he has “sunken eyes [...] [with] white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which dies out slowly” (25).
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