A Thematic Study Of Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness From The Space Perspective

Joseph Conrad(1857-1924),especially known for his marine novels,plays a prominent role in the 20 th century for his extraordinary creative achievements.His works have always attracted the attention of scholars,of which Heart of Darkness is the most.Scholars have interpreted the work from the perspectives of colonialism,post-colonialism,and psychological analysis.This paper argues that this novel,which is based on Conrad’s personal experience,is full of humanism and the trend of anti-colonialism.With Marlow’s narration,the destruction of the natural environment,the tragic life of black people,and the death of Kurtz gradually emerges,highlighting Conrad’s strong anti-colonial ideology.This thesis mainly with the help of Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the trinity of space analyzes the progress of Conrad’s anti-colonial ideas and the criticism of colonialism from three aspects: physical space,mental space and social space.On the one hand,the first chapter analyses the inner causes of the decline of European colonialism in African land from the perspective of physical space.On the other,through the analysis of environmental destruction of Africa,it implies that the colonial practice will eventually break down.The second chapter analyses Kurtz’s moral disorientation and Marlow’s ideological awakening from the perspective of mental space.On the one hand,Kurtz,representative of colonialism,gradually loses himself in the conflicts between different spaces,which hints the decline of colonial practice in Africa;on the other,Marlow,representative of anti-colonialism,engages in self-reflection in his quest for Kurtz,which shows the Conrad’s progress of anti-colonial thoughts.By comparing the differences between European and African societies,the third chapter explores the progress of anti-colonialism and the decline of European colonialism in Africa from the perspective of social space.This article argues that Heart of Darkness is a powerful indictment of colonialism,showing the progress of Conrad’s anti-colonial consciousness and the decline of colonialism in Africa in the nineteenth century,reflecting Conrad’s critique of colonialism and his support for anti-colonialism.