20th century ​ ​ From An Image of Arfica:​ ​ Rasicm in Conrad's​ ​ Heart of Darkness

1. 20th century
From An Image of Arfica:
Rasicm in Conrad's
Heart of Darkness
Done by: Dareen

2. Chinua
Achebe
-1930-2013
-He was a Nigerian
novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded
as the dominant figure in modern African
literature.
-His first novel (Things Fall Apart (1958))
occupies a pivotal place in African
literature
and remains the most widely studied,
translated and read African novel.

3. • In 1975 he gave a controversial lecture, "An Image of Africa: Racism in
Conrad's Heart of Darkness"
• which was a landmark in postcolonial discourse.
• Subsequently published in The Massachusetts Review , it featured
criticism of Joseph Conrad,
• who Achebe described as "a thoroughgoing racist."
• Achebe's own novel Things Fall Apart can be read as a response to
Conrad's story.

4. Heart of
Darkness

5. characters
Marlow
-The protagonist of Heart of Darkness.
-Marlow is philosophical, independent-minded.
-He is also a master storyteller.
-he has seen enough of the world and has encountered enough
debased white men to make him skeptical of imperialism.
- He was shocked by what he sees the European traders have done to the
natives.

6. Kurtz
• an ivory trader for the Company.
• he sets himself up as a god to the natives.
• By the time Marlow reaches him, he is dying.
General Manager
• The chief agent of the Company in its African territory, who runs
the Central Station.

7. • Heart of Darkness is an 1899 novel by Joseph Conrad detailing the story
of Marlow,
• the captain of a steamboat, who travels up the Congo River to find a man
named Kurtz.
• Heart of Darkness begins on the deck of the Nellie, a British ship on the
coast of the Thames.
• Marlow begins to reminisce about the time when, struggling to find work,
he decides to take a job on a steamboat in the Congo.

8. • Marlow begins telling the three men about a time he journeyed in
a steamboat up the Congo River.
• At the Company's Outer Station in the Congo, Marlow witnesses scenes
of savagery, chaos, and waste.
• he witnesses that the Company has forced the locals into service,
whereupon they are overworked and brutalized in the name of profit.

9. • Marlow realizes that the Africans are kept as slaves, and many are dying
from the brutality of the conditions.
• These Africans, he realizes, and "not inhuman.
• In fact, the more he hears about Kurtz, the more obsessed Marlow
becomes.
• Who is this Kurtz? Why is he such a powerful figure?
• Marlow's met by a weird Russian dressed like a clown.
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10. • This "harlequin" informs Marlow that Kurtz is a god
• When he returns to Europe, Marlow is disillusioned with both "The
Company" and Europe in general.
• The superficial themes of the novel are imperialism and cruelty of the
European powers.
• All the European powers engaged in Africa are occupying their land and
plundering resources while propagating it as a civilizing mission.

11. Achebe:
Racism in Heart of
Darkness

12. • In "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness ," Achebe
accuses Conrad of racism as the essential "heart of darkness."
• Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as 'the other world'
• the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization.
• One might contend that this attitude toward the African in Heart of
Darkness does not belong to Conrad, but rather to Marlow,

13. • Achebe views Conrad as espousing a kind of liberalism that "touched all
the best minds of the age in England, Europe and America​.
• Achebe responds by doubting Conrad's talents as a writer.
• Achebe accounts for Conrad's racism against black Africans because of
his personal history.

14. • Thus, Achebe clearly sees Heart of Darkness as a racist text,.
• and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies
in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today.

15. • The image of Africa and its people as backwards and primitive exists in
many forms today,
• including that we group the whole African continent together as a group
and remain largely ignorant to the fact that Africa is composed of many
countries,
• just like the Americas Europe, and Asia.
• The issues set forth by Achebe in his essay are still very prominent today.

16. Thank you