The document provides context about Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. It includes biographical details about Conrad and discusses some of the key themes, characters, and narrative structures in the novella, such as the story within a story frame, the journey into the African jungle as a descent into darkness and savagery, and opposing views about whether Conrad endorses or critiques imperialism. It also mentions criticisms of the novella for being racist, sexist, and imperialist.

1. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

2. Entering Africa P. 8 Morituri te salutant..We who are about to die, salute you. Said by the Roman gladiators as they passed by the emperor on their way to battle.

3. Devils (13) Former devils: Described as: strong, lusty, red-eyed Devils of violence, greed, and desire Current devils: Described as: flabby, pretending, weak-eyed Devils of rapacious and pitiless folly Reappears on p. 17

4. Kurtz The painting: p.21 Moving up the ranks: p. 22-23 Kurtz’s mission: p.29

5. Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski Born in Polish Ukraine Age 16: joined the French merchant marine Age 21: Joined the British merchant naviy. His naval experiences provided material for his writing and he traveled widely in the colonies held by the British and other European empires.

6. Conrad as early modernist The novelist T.E. Lawrence called him “a giant of the subjective.” “ Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes to late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets.” - Conrad

7. Victorian vs. Modernist Generally unquestioning attitude toward imperialism  Victorianism Critiquing imperialism  Modernism

8. Structure of the novel Narrator within narrator; story w/in a story Marlow is the secondary narrator The narrator is an unnamed member of the crew; Marlow tells his story to this unnamed “I” Device has been used by many other writers: Mary Shelley in Frankenstein Samuel Taylor Coleridge in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

9. Story within a story The external story frames parallels to a great degree the internal story Two rivers: Thames and Congo Two colonial histories: Colonization of England by invading Romans Colonization of Africa by the Belgians and British

10. Rives Thames “…the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames.”

11. Sir John Franklin Explorer seeking the chart of the Northwest Passage Ships were the Erebus and the Terror Expedition disappeared; now we know they died of starvation and scurvy.

12. Narrative within a narrative Effect of multiple narrators is to create what the African author and literary critic Chnua Achebe calls a “cordon sanitaire”: a quarantine border that keeps a sanitary distance between the ethically and…

13. “Darkness was here yesterday” Savagery Wilderness Forest  jungle  hearts of men Incomprehensible= Detestable Incomprehensible

14. Reading Conrad Two opposing views of Conrad: Conrad endorses the “civilizing mission” of imperialism. Narrator-Marlow=Conrad Conrad critiques the blindness and cruelty of colonial practices. Narrator-Marlow, is an ironic commentator who represents the psychology of the imperial nature.

15. Charges against the novel Racist Sexist Imperialist

16. 1975: Chinua Achebe describes Conrad as “a bloody racist” Achebe’s charge comes in the midst of a shift in models of literary criticism: The old “new criticism”: the text as a whole in itself The new “new criticism”: the text as a product of social forces and reflective of those forces.