Is Heart of Darkness a text which criticises or endorses imperialism?
Date Submitted: 09/16/2004 13:10:11
Category: / Literature / European Literature
Length: 8 pages (2082 words)
Category: / Literature / European Literature
Length: 8 pages (2082 words)
Is Heart of Darkness a text which criticises or endorses imperialism?
A fair answer to this question requires a review of imperialism and the associated notions of prejudice and racism. Completeness also depends upon understanding the setting of Heart of Darkness: the region now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the period around 1900. A version of Conrad's work first appeared in the Blackwood's Magazine in 1899, but was published as a novella in 1902.
Imperialism …
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…to the demise of a brutal and disgusting enterprise. Conrad's reflections of his own experiences on the Congo River would support this. Heart of Darkness condemns the type of imperialism which is simply "robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale."
On balance though, a reading of Heart of Darkness in the context of its time, would support a contention that Conrad endorsed the ideal of British imperialism where "real work is done there."
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