Representations Of Conrad's Imperialist Complex In Heart Of Darkness

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), one of the greatest English novelists at the end of19th century, begins to write after more-than-twenty-year career as a sailor. He isfamous for his writing of sea adventure. Heart of Darkness is his most famous novel,based primarily on his experiences in the Congo in 1890. First published in 1899 as aserial in Blackwood's Magazine, it became extensively influential during subsequentdecades. Critics interpret it from philosophical, psychological, and politicalperspective and several other points of view. The present paper analyzes it in terms ofpostcolonial perspective.Said acclaims in his Orientalism that every European, in what he could say aboutthe Orient, is consequently a racist, imperialist and almost totally ethnocentric. And inhis Culture and Imperialism he continues to argue that during imperial time everyartist is influenced by the environment and show this influence in his works. Conradlives in a time when imperialism is in its heyday and imperialists spread all over theworld. As an artist, he could not live in a world isolated from reality. Thus, he isimpacted on imperialist ideology of his era. In the novella, Conrad exposes the crime and barbarity of the imperialism andpays sympathy to the oppressed Africans. But affected by the myth of imperialistideology, he serves as a racist and a defender of the imperialism when he attempts tocondemn the colonizers in the colony. In light of the postcolonial theories like Said's"culture and imperialism", this thesis tries to explore Conrad's imperialist complex inHeart of Darkness. The present paper is divided into six parts: The Introduction gives a brief survey of the author as well as the prevailingcriticism of the novella. It also makes a clear the writing purpose of the thesis.Namely, to reveal Conrad's imperialist complex in light of the analysis of the novella.Chapter one explores the relation between imperialism and imperial context andpoints out Conrad like his contemporary writers is immune to the imperial ideologywhen he lives in the high stages of Britain Empire. His imperialist complex isreflected in his novella, Heart of Darkness.Chapter Two reveals Conrad's imperialist ideology in light of the narratologicalanalysis of the novella. Conrad makes use of one of the imperial literary genre—theadventure fiction to justify the European's presence in other lands. And Conrad adoptsthe frame structure. There are two narrators in the novel: Marlow and "I" .Theemployment of "I" as both the narrator and narratee enables the revealing of Marlow'sattitudes. As a narrator, the person who was reporting the story told by Marlow, "I"controls effectively the rhythm of the narration. As a narratee, the employment of "I"makes it possible for Marlow to interrupt several times and in this way reminds thereaders of the novella. The inner story is indeed about the imperial mastery, whiteEuropean over black African, civilization over the primitive continent. Therefore, theframe structure helps Marlow to reveal his imperial assumption.Chapter Three analyzes representations of the Africa and Africans, and revealsConrad's imperialist complex. In the novella, Conrad marginalizes both Africa and itspeople as the "other". First, Africa is represented as primitive, backward, diseased.Secondly, in the novella, the black Africans are described as the inferior, primitive,uncivilized savages, even the cannibals. Thirdly, Kurtz's mistress, the black woman isnegatively treated as a counterpart of his refined Intended. Such images of Africa andthe Africans rightly justify imperialism and make Conrad side along with othercolonizers whom he attacks.Chapter Four points out that Marlow is a spokesman for Conrad as well as theimperial speaker, and explores Conrad's attitude toward imperial civilization. Conradextensively condemns the criminality and the degenerate morality of the imperialist,because he realizes that inefficiency of civilizing work and colonizer's degeneracythreatens the health of their nation but also the fate of the Empire itself. In order tosave the empire, he sends the massages to the imperialists that the empire is in dangerwithout the Victorian Britain's morality, such as "efficiency of work", "restraint".The Conclusion attempts to reaffirm that the novella reveals Conrad's imperialistcomplex. In the novella, Conrad marginalizes both Africa and its people as other,primitive and uncivilized with his Eurocentricism and Ethnocentricism. He impliesthat it is the obligation for the civilized Europeans to rule Africans in order to leadthem to a higher level of civilization and culture. And his notions of salvation ofempire are reflected in the novella. Therefore, he can be regarded as a racist anddefender of imperialism.