Conrad's Heart Of Darkness: Study Of The Uncanny In A Post-colonial Context

Heart of Darkness tells that Marlow travels deep into the African continent with British merchant ships during the overseas expansion of imperialist countries.During that period,European centralism is very prevalent,and non-European ones are always excluded from the edge of society and in a subordinate position.Conrad recognizes and dares to expose the exploitation and brutality of colonizers at that time.Unfortunately,he fails to transcend the limitation of his time.He expresses this ambivalent emotion through Marlow?s narration.Combined with the post-colonial context,the thesis explores the author?s paradoxical attitude towards colonization in Heart of Darkness with the theory of the uncanny.Post-colonial discourse embodies itself in abundantly uncanny literary writings in this novel.First of all,based on the concepts of “hybridity” and “mimicry” in post-colonialism,the thesis analyzes the symptoms of uncanny in the novel.Marlow?s negative emotions and un-homely feelings make him fall into the predicament of repression and anxiety.Then this thesis is devoted to exploring how the collective unconscious of the white world and Marlow?s own racial superiority have become the initiators behind the appearance of the uncanny under the catalysis of cultural imperialism.In search of Kurtz,the author?s spokesman Marlow,on the one hand mercilessly satirizes colonizers represented in Kurtz,on the other hand agrees with the “inferiority” of the colonized and hence suffers from depression.Although Conrad keeps fighting against his inner self,he cannot break away from the imprisonment of the times to complete his release.However,the ambivalence expressed by the author precisely shows his doubt about colonial activities,sounding an alarm for that chaotic era.