The Call Of The Other:Conrad’s Paradoxical Consciousness Of Africa In Heart Of Darkness

Joseph Conrad’s Polish ancestry and British identity contribute to his double consciousness that compels the production of nothing but marvelous and astounding works. Heart of Darkness epitomizes the creative endeavor Conrad engages himself with to tap into his double consciousness. Entrenched in the novella is an autopsy of the ideological construction of the image of the Other which can reflect Conrad’s ambivalence toward Africa and the corresponding homogenized conception of the Other ingrained in Western thought. While wielding the linguistic weapon to lambaste British imperialism through the graphic portrayal of the agony and affliction suffered by the Africans, Conrad is also unconsciously involved in British imperialist ideology in his presentation of Africa as the backdrop upon which the British cast their apprehension about the possible regression and degeneration.This thesis explores Conrad’s paradoxical consciousness of the African Other by analyzing the narrative tension between Marlow as a character-narrator of the adventure story and Conrad, whose experiences in Congo, motivate his creation of the novella. Whereas Marlow’s observation of native Africans as barbarous savages ready to be subjugated by Kurtz the colonizer implies Conrad’s implicit repulsion against Africa, Marlow’s account presents the anguish and suffering superimposed on native Africans, which demonstrates Conrad’s explicit compassion toward Africa. Moreover, Marlow’s perception of the remote kinship and common bond that exist between native Africans and the British points toward Conrad’s concealed appreciation of Africa as a culture worth of respect. Hence, Conrad’s contradictory responses to the image of Africa testify to the paradoxical nature inherent in the call of the Other.In the first part, the call of repulsion is discovered through Marlow’s portrayal of Africa under imperial eyes. Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism lends itself to Marlow’s revelation of the projected dark images of the primitive backwardness of African continent, the supernatural evilness of African wilderness, and the ugly savageness of African natives. In the second part, the call of compassion is located through Marlow’s depiction of Africa under colonial rule. What Conrad witnesses on his journey to Congo constitutes Marlow’s true-to-life presentation of territorial invasion, economic exploitation, physical devastation, and psychological contortion endured by Africa. In the third part, the call of appreciation is glimpsed through Marlow’s description of Africa in cross-cultural encounter. If Homi Bhabha’s conception of hybridity could so recklessly be borrowed, the shared experience of evolutionary history, human impulses, and ancestral kinship on the part of Africa and Britain directs them to an in-between space where similarity rather than discrepancy reigns.Such an ambivalence on Conrad’s part toward Africa is symptomatic of British imperialism at the turn of the century, when colonialism is challenged within the empire, and the attending undifferentiated homogeneity of western ideology is under attack. Conrad’s unprecedented conception of the complexity and ambiguity inherent in the image of Africa undermines the century-old prejudice against the Other, and heralds a new age in which divergent cultures might as well live peacefully with one another, with no colonialism and imperialism to speak of.