European Colonialism and

Joseph Conradin preparation for reading

Heart of Darkness

Pre-Colonial Africa: 7th-16th centuries

Another image of pre-colonial Africa

“The scramble for Africa”: European colonization (beginning in 17th c., height in 19th-early 20th c.)

This happened in other parts of the world, too:

The Partition of India (1947): 200,000 to 1,000,000 people died. 75,000 to 100,000 women were kidnapped or raped.

The Vietnam War (1956-1975): started as an anticolonial war between Vietnam and France (its colonizer) and then the brunt of the conflict transferred to the U.S.

Arguably, many of the civil wars in AfricaThe Irish Famine and Troubles in Northern IrelandThe genocide of Native Americans and Australian

Aborigines Slavery

…leading to all sorts of historical repercussions, including:

British Empire – “the sun never sets…”

Decolonization of British Colonies in Africa

Look familiar?“Newly Independent States1945-1973”

Africa today (sort of)the newest nation is South Sudan, founded July 2011

is a term used for a particular kind of literature as well as a theory used to analyze/critique literature, history, society, etc.

Postcolonial work critiques a worldview that may champion: the global West and North (“first-world” nations), Christianity, whiteness, capitalism, democracy

Postcolonialism often champions: the poor and disenfranchised, people who have been excluded from history based on racial, ethnic, and religious grounds, alternative histories, radical politics (esp. Marxism), people of nations that have been exploited by wealthier nations or international corporations (today, often the U.S. or U.S.-based companies)

“Postcolonial”

There is also colonialist literatureThis literature supports the cause of

colonialism: usually a belief that Western nations have a moral authority to “civilize” the “uncivilized” people of the earth by spreading their own values and culture.

This often includes democracy, capitalism, and Christianity

Postcolonialism responds to… Colonialism

Consider whether you think the book supports or critiques European colonialism.

Please note that Conrad does use the “n-word” in this text. I do not expect you to simply accept this or feel comfortable with it. Instead, perhaps notice when and why he uses it. Also remember that to conflate author and character is a fallacy. Which character(s) use this word and why?

As you read Heart of Darkness…

Modern readers are often dismayed by the racist language in Heart of Darkness.  Apologists often argue that you have to remember that in 1890, when Conrad did his trip up the Congo River, things were different.  But were they?  How was the word "nigger" was perceived in 1890? The word "nigger," like Negro, Niger, and the archaic slang word "neger," come from the Latin root for black.  According to Stuart Flexner, in his 1976 book I Hear America Talking: . . . At any rate, "nigger" was a common word in both England and America by the 17th century; it was just considered a pronunciation of "Negro" until around 1825, when both abolitionists and Blacks began to object to it as disparaging. Then after the Civil War "nigger" became the most common contemptuous word for a Black.  (i) For those who would argue that England was different, Dorothy Hammond and Alta Jablow demonstrate in The Africa That Never Was (1970) that the word "nigger" had fallen into disrepute by the 1880s": No issue was taken with the word or its use at this time, though some in positions of administrative responsibility, clearly aware of its pejorative content, eschewed its use. In this connection it is noteworthy that [Sir Harry] Johnston [writing in the 1880s] occasionally lapses into using the word, but discreetly, hemmed in by quotation marks. Later, when he became Proconsul of British Empire in Africa, he did not use the term at all." (100) There is little doubt, then, that Conrad would have been aware in 1898 that the word "nigger" was derogatory. From http://www.utm.edu/staff/lalexand/brnovel/Heart.htm

(1857-1924)Was actually Polish (born

there when it was part of Imperial Russia)

Became a British citizen in 1886

English was his third language, after Polish and French

His writing straddles the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of Modernism

Worked as a merchant marine, including for a Belgian company in the Congo

Joseph Conrad