Joseph Conrad 1857 1924 Heart of Darkness 1902

Joseph Conrad 1857 - 1924 Heart of Darkness (1902) “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language” Albert Guerard

Berlin Conference of 1884 -85 • AKA: the “Scramble for Africa” • 14 countries attended • Lasted 3 months • Divided Africa into 50 countries

Berlin Conference – The Colonization of Africa

King Leopold II 1835 - 1909 • Supreme executive of the Congo Free State in 1885 • Criminalized hunting by Congolese • Turned Congo Free State into a great slave plantation

John Everett Millais, The Blind Girl, 1856, City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1874, Musee Marmottan, Paris

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VI (apocalypse by water), 1913 (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.

Musical Composition: 19 th century vs. 20 th century Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) The Queen of Spades Opera - 1890 Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971) The Rite of Spring – 1913 • “alien sound world” First 3 minutes: • “plaintive, almost straining bassoon solo” • “strutting” English horn • “bass clarinets conjure up bubbling, vomiting goop” • the piccolo trumpet soars like a prehistoric flying creature

Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) Conrad’s narrative structure is inherently cinematic. - Linda Costanzo Cahir (literary critic) Comparisons between Conrad’s anonymous narrator and the camera’s eye: 1) Both are interposed between teller/listener near invisibly 2) Both control what we see and hear 3) Both are “subtle” and fade from our consciousness

Chinua Achebe’s Critique of Heart of Darkness: “An Image of Africa” (1975/1977) First point Conrad reduces the evocation of the African atmosphere to “two sentences, one about silence and the other about frenzy. ” Main charge “[Conrad] chose the role of purveyor of comforting myths. ” Support for His Charge • Descriptions of the Africans – African vs. European woman • African speech

Achebe’s Critique What if Marlow isn’t Conrad’s mouthpiece? Achebe: Conrad has offered no “alternative frame of reference” How do you answer Achebe’s charges: 1) “The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world. ” 2) “…the West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilization and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparison with Africa. ”