| The publication of Heart of Darkness secures Conrad's position in the history of British literature,and also triggers hot discussion that lasts till now.Though Conrad sticks to the credo of showing that is to let readers see,the glimpses of his effort are always enveloped into some kinds of mists.It is his expectation that readers pierce them to try to catch some glimpse of truth.From postcolonial perspective,the so-called truth is just as Nietzsche defines to be "a sum of human relations" which is "binding to a people."It is,however,not a denial of Conrad's well-intentioned expectation but a way to interpret how in this novella imperialists with their agents colonizers take advantage of the self-decreed truth which is in effect lying to guarantee and whitewash the gratification of colonial desire.This thesis starts with the interpretation of colonial desire.Desire with its double visions,when laid bare,reveals hypocritical colonialism which is destructive as conquest while far more horrible.The lying ideas in print and talk used to gloss over the gratification of colonial appetite through plunder to make it a noble cause of bringing to the so-called dark places civilization and trade of modern style betray that the horror of darkness is in colonialism.Further interpretation in this thesis unfolds that behind those whitewashing ideas,there is a whole system of colonial discourse which guarantees colonizers' authority and domination.Imperialists with their agents colonizers achieve their authority and superiority through the process of denigration which is to confine black natives into a whole state where backwardness prevails,where natives are in want of history, culture and humanity.Authority guaranteed,they exercise this discourse to whitewash those committed atrocities through the process of disavowal, which is the creation of a mobile army of lying ideas that they manoeuvre into something true.The construction and exercise of authority in colonial discourse are all with the abuse of their power,which is in fact the manifestation that to the gratification of their appetite,imperialists and colonizers manipulate the truth and treat it as functional,which is utterly horrible.Within this kind of horror of darkness,it is easy to pierce that colonialism is chaotic.Colonizers on the very outset break up the social and cultural order of colonies,and then set up a colonial order system whose only function is to make colonization conducive.Colonialism is in reality "chaotic and evil." While most of colonizers carry on this bloody colonization,there are two colonizers who are capable of humanity,lack of power to call an end to it as they are.They are put into untold agony because they are somehow sensible to catch a glimpse of the truth of Conrad's sense which is the horror of darkness hidden in colonialism, with their agony included,though they may not feel. |
