"Heart of Darkness"

Paper Summary:

The writer proposes that it is difficult to separate Joseph Conrad from his book, "Heart of Darkness", because of the author's own experiences and world events at the time of the writing of his novella. The paper discusses how, although a fictional representation, the book is a commentary on the imperialism that was a major aspect of western strategy from the mid-1800s to early 1900s. The paper examines how the novella was also a reflection on Conrad's own adventure in 1890 when he sailed in Africa up the Congo River.

From the Paper:

"Thus, when Conrad began writing Heart of Darkness in the early 1900s, he had been to Africa and heard about, and perhaps even seen, some of the effects of imperialism. As literary scholar Paccaud-Huguet (168) explains: Conrad "passed through most of the trials and dangers which are the lot of the sailor. He was to make the fullest use of these experiences, and of those wild and lurid ones he had had as a very young man." His voyage up the Congo River, undertaken for a corrupt Belgian trading company was "part of what he called the 'vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience and geographical exploration'.""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bradley, Candice. Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. January 24, 1996. Lawrence University Lecture Series by Associate Professor of Anthropology. 2 April, 2006.http://www.cx.unibe.ch/ens/cg/africanfiction/conrad/bradley/bradley.html
• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Dell, 1973.
• Conrad, Joseph. Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Papke, David. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A Literary Critique of Imperialism. Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce. 31.4 (2000) 584-593.

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• Analytical Essay # 141458 : "Human Nature in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
• Analytical Essay # 46854 : "Heart of Darkness": Kurtz and Marlow Compared"

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