An Analysis Of Post-colonialism In Heart Of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), one of the British novelists at the end of 19th century, began to write after more-than-twenty-year career as a sailor. He was famous for his writing of sea adventure. Heart of Darkness was his famous novel, based primarily on his experiences in the Congo in 1890. First published in 1899 as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine, it became extensively influential during subsequent decades. Critics interpreted it from philosophical, psychological, and political perspective and several other points of view. The present paper analyzed it in terms of postcolonial perspectives.Colonialism was never a simple act of economic exploitation and plunder. It was an invasion under the cover of racial and cultural superiority. In the novel of Heart of Darkness, Conrad tried to criticize the crime of colonists, but he also showed to be a colonizers. He was not only an anti-colonialist but also a colonizer. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad described Africans as prehistoric, primitive, uncivilized cannibals. At that time Conrad served for the colonialism. Even though Conrad attacked the colonialism, the unexpected result made Conrad side along with the colonizers and at the same time, it revealed Conrad was a colonizer. He was progressive when he exposed the rottenness of the overseas governance bravely and pessimistically. However, he was extremely reactionary when he admitted that Africa could have had their own history and culture, but it was finally defeated by their own history and culture, which was trampled by the imperialists.In the novella, Conrad exposed the crime and barbarity of the imperialism and paid sympathy to the oppressed Africans. But affected by the myth of imperialist ideology, he served as a racist and a defender of the imperialism when he attempted to condemn the colonizers in the colony. In light of the postcolonial theories like Said's"cultural and imperialism","Orientalism""the Other"etc., this thesis tried to explore Conrad's ideology of anti-colonialism and pro-colonialism in Heart of Darkness, and found out the roots of Conrad's ambivalence.The thesis consists of three parts: an introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The main content is as follows:The introduction gives a brief survey of the author and his works as well as the writing background. It states the foreign research and the domestic research of the novel. It also makes a clear the writing purpose of the thesis and introduces the theory.The main body is composed of three chapters, which are presented as follows:Chapter one mainly introduces theory frame and the reflection of theory in Heart of Darkness. This chapter consists of three parts. The first part briefly summarizes the postcolonial theory. It introduces the definition of the Post-colonialism. And it can show the uniqueness of Conrad's writing through the Post-colonialism theory. The second part introduces the main parts of the theory and foreshadows the following analysis. The third part combines the Post-colonialism and Heart of Darkness together. And briefly analyses the Orientalism and the Other in Heart of Darkness.Chapter two mainly discusses Conrad's anti-colonialism through analyzing Heart of Darkness. It unveils the brutality of the colonizers and Conrad points out the exploitation and plunders by the colonizers under the cover of"glorious mission". In addition, according to Conrad, under the influence of colonialism, both the natives and the whites suffered a psychological chaos. So Conrad pointed out that not only the natives were victims, but also the whites suffered a lot from psychological aspect. The whites lost their beliefs and values of their own group because of the meet of an alien life-style.Chapter three analyses the representation of Conrad's pro-colonialism in Heart of Darkness. Conrad's British imperialism superiority is analyzed with the focus on the glory of the River Thames and the British Victorian ideology. First, Heart of Darkness projects image of Africa as"the other world", the foil and antithesis of western civilized world. Although some human civilizations originated in Africa, in the novella it is described as primitive, backward, poor and diseased. Secondly, in the novella black Africans were depicted as barbaric, bestial and ugly. They were totally silenced and presented in an improper way. Conrad saw the Africans were uncivilized inferior savages because he did not pat attention to the value of Africa culture. By means of the explorations of Conrad's imperial discourse and patriarchal imperialism in Heart of Darkness, this thesis points out Conrad's attitudes towards imperialism and draws the conclusion that Conrad is a racist.The conclusion gives a summary of the whole thesis and points out that Conrad's anti-colonialism and pro-colonialism have certain progressive meaning in the Third World and its people's life. On one hand, it points out even though Conrad attacked the colonialism, the unexpected result made Conrad side along with the colonizers and at the same time, it revealed Conrad was a colonizer. Through the analysis above, Heart of Darkness is a novel full of the ideology of colonialism and anti-colonialism. The keynote is anti-colonialism, while it cannot be denied the ideology of colonialism expressed in the novel. Nowadays, the nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa are in the same situation in economy and culture as they are controlled by Europe, though they are independent in politics. So, to be thoroughly independent, the third world should rebuild the economy and local culture to break away from the control of imperialist nations.