Circulation And Subversion:A New Historicist Reading Of Heart Of Darkness

Conrad has pointed out in his work "Notes on Life and Letters" that "fiction is history,human history,or it is nothing".His masterpiece—Heart of Darkness—is exactly based on his own experience of going deep into the hinterland of Africa along the Congo River in his youth,and what Marlow—the main narrator of the work—has seen,heard and felt during his trip is the authentic recording of what Conrad has experienced himself.Since the publication of Heart of Darkness,the theme of the work and Conrad’s position in literary history have always been in controversy,which mainly focus on Conrad’s attitudes towards women and colonialism.Three prevalent thoughts—patriarchalism,imperialism,and social Darwinism—occupied great importance in social ideologies of the Victorian period and were deep-rooted in people’s minds,and as a writer of that age,Conrad was inevitably influenced by these thoughts and reflected them in his work.Thus some diametrically opposed comments on Conrad and his masterpiece have emerged:some critics hold the opinion that Conrad is indeed prejudiced against and deliberately marginalizes women,excluding them from the world of men,and some of them even criticize him as a "misogynist",while some others hold quite opposite opinions.Some critics insist that Conrad is also in actual fact a supporter of social Darwinism and brutal colonization,even a "bloody racist",while others believe that Conrad is actually a powerful representative of anti-colonialism and so on.This paper will analyze Heart of Darkness from the perspective of New Historicism,and through the combination of history and text,the main ideas of the work will be explored.The New Historicist critics no longer simply regard history as the background of literature,but insist that there is an active interaction between social reality and the novels:the history provides a necessary background for the novels,and the novels also in turn have an influence on the shaping of history.Montrose has put forward the concepts of "the textuality of history" and"the historicity of texts" to illustrate the inseparable interaction between history and text.Greenblatt has skillfully borrowed some refreshing economic terms such as "circulation" to describe the process of social energy transmission.Through using the concepts of "circulation"and "subversion" in New Historicism,this paper will analyze Conrad’s unintentional reflection of and merciless criticism of the three mainstream ideas in Heart of Darkness,thus revealing the truth that:on the surface,Conrad is indeed influenced by these three prevalent thoughts and has reflected them in many details,but it does not actually mean that he is a "racist" or a"misogynist";by subverting the images of traditional women,he shows that women are not synonymous with weakness and ignorance;by subverting the "civilized" white images in Africa,he shows that the great cause of "bringing light and progress" to Africa is in fact cruel oppression and exploitation;by subverting the images of cruel and bloody "cannibals" in the eyes of Westerners,he shows that the true barbarians are not backward Africans but these "advanced"Western colonialists.Through the subversion of the three mainstream thoughts in Victorian period,Conrad has issued a voice that could not be heard in the works of his contemporary writers,evoking people’s awareness and reflection on these deep-rooted accustomed thoughts,thus promoting social and literary progress.