King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 1 [ [ ] 1 جامعة الملك فيصل عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد The Modern English Novel Dr. Mohammed Nour Al-Naimi 1

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 2 [ [ ] Lecture 14 The Modern English Novel

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 3 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness Key Facts - FULL TITLE · Heart of Darkness - AUTHOR · Joseph Conrad - TYPE OF WORK · Novella (between a novel and a short story in length and scope) - GENRE · Symbolism, colonial literature, adventure tale, frame story, almost a romance in its insistence on heroism and the supernatural and its preference for the symbolic over the realistic - LANGUAGE · English - TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · England, 1898–1899; inspired by Conrad’s journey to the Congo in DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · Serialized in Blackwood’s magazine in 1899; published in 1902 in the volume Youth: A Narrative; and Two Other Stories

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 4 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness - PUBLISHER · J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. - York - NARRATOR · There are two narrators: an anonymous passenger on a pleasure ship, who listens to Marlow’s story, and Marlow himself, a middle-aged ship’s captain. - POINT OF VIEW · The first narrator speaks in the first-person plural, on behalf of four other passengers who listen to Marlow’s tale. Marlow narrates his story in the first person, describing only what he witnessed and experienced, and providing his own commentary on the story. - TONE · Ambivalent: Marlow is disgusted at the brutality of the Company and horrified by Kurtz’s degeneration, but he claims that any thinking man would be tempted into similar behavior. - TENSE · Past

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 5 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness - SETTING ( TIME ) · Latter part of the nineteenth century, probably sometime between 1876 and SETTING ( PLACE ) · Opens on the Thames River outside London, where Marlow is telling the story that makes up Heart of Darkness. Events of the story take place in Brussels, at the Company’s offices, and in the Congo, then a Belgian territory. - PROTAGONIST · Marlow - M AJOR CONFLICT · Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as “civilized” Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of European society.

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 6 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness - RISING ACTION · The brutality Marlow witnesses in the Company’s employees, the rumors he hears that Kurtz is a remarkable and humane man, and the numerous examples of Europeans breaking down mentally or physically in the environment of Africa. - CLIMAX · Marlow’s discovery, upon reaching the Inner Station, that Kurtz has completely abandoned European morals and norms of behavior - FALLING ACTION · Marlow’s acceptance of responsibility for Kurtz’s legacy, Marlow’s encounters with Company officials and Kurtz’s family and friends, Marlow’s visit to Kurtz’s Intended

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 7 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness - THEMES · The hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, the absurdity of evil - MOTIFS · Darkness (very seldom opposed by light), interiors vs. surfaces (kernel/shell, coast/inland, station/forest, etc.), ironic understatement, hyperbolic language, inability to find words to describe situation adequately, images of ridiculous waste, upriver versus downriver/toward and away from Kurtz/away from and back toward civilization (quest or journey structure)find - SYMBOLS · Rivers, fog, women (Kurtz’s Intended, his African mistress), French warship shelling forested coast, grove of death, severed heads on fence posts, Kurtz’s “Report,” dead helmsman, maps,

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 8 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness “whited sepulchre” of Brussels, knitting women in Company offices, man trying to fill bucket with hole in it - FORESHADOWING · Permeates every moment of the narrative—mostly operates on the level of imagery, which is consistently dark, gloomy, and threatening. - The Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has claimed that Heart of Darkness is an “offensive and deplorable book” that “set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.” Achebe says that Conrad does not provide enough of an outside frame of reference to enable the

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 9 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness novel to be read as ironic or critical of imperialism. Based on the evidence in the text, argue for or against Achebe’s assertion. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness “an offensive and deplorable book” “a story in which the very humanity of black people is called into question” Achebe ‘s ultimate point will be that Heart of Darkness should be recognized as a racist work.

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 10 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness Achebe begins by attacking Conrad’s contrast of Africa and Europe. “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization.” Achebe takes issue not solely with the fact that Africa is presented as the opposite of Europe, but that it is unknowable. He feels that Conrad is afraid of “the lurking hint of kinship,” noting that Conrad fears Africa as a distant place still consumed with the savagery that Europe conquered.

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 11 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness Achebe’s next point, after establishing Conrad’s prejudice for the country, is to establish his prejudice for the people. He once again maintains that the Western world enjoys the work because it plays into stereotypes. “What thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity- like yours…Ugly.” Achebe claims that Conrad held views that dehumanize Africans. Essentially, he believes that Conrad felt that the Africans primarily spent their time engaging in “savage” behavior, and that Conrad saw this as romantic.

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 12 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness Further, he accuses Conrad of encouraging Africans to be “in their place”, which includes performing activities like: Paddling boats Singing Shouting He feels that Conrad does not like Africans acting in a European manner, citing a passage where a native is operating the boiler on the steamer, ending with the quote “[h]e ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank.” Achebe also mentions Kurtz’s mistress, bringing up that she is a contrast to Kurtz’s fiancée (i.e. Europe), an example of Africa’s mystery and primal nature, and a native “in her place.”

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 13 [ [ ] Heart of Darkness Another point of Achebe’s is that Conrad rarely deigns to make the Africans in any way intelligent, citing particularly their lack of speech. He notes that they do not speak even amongst themselves. The idea that African’s are inherently less the Europeans bothers Achebe immensely.

King Faisal University جامعة الملك فيصل Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Education عمادة التعلم الإلكتروني والتعليم عن بعد ] 14 [ [ ] بحمد الله