Heart of Darkness: A Racist Text?

Christina König

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9783638228992
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2 (B), University of Tubingen (English Philology), course: Proseminar II Literatur: Heart of Darkness and its Transformations, language: English, abstract: The following essay will deal with the question whether or not Joseph Conrad's Heart ofDarkness is a racist text.This question comes up because this novel was written during the age of Victoria, a time ofimperialism and colonialism where the term "race" changed its meaning and became amonolithic factor.The term 'race' was first used in English literature as denoting a class of people, evena family. In eighteen-century usage it was possible to speak of a race of animals orbirds. By the nineteenth century this imprecision was fully recognized, and it wassuggested that the term was purely subjective, and illuminated the 'opinion of theinvestigator rather than … the object of investigation.' (1Bolt: 1971, ix).So from then on, racism, which can be defined as " the belief that races have distinctive culturalcharacteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races withan intrinsic superiority over others" (2Wehmeier: 2000, 1042) was often included or propagatedin literary works.As Conrad was a member of the Victorian society it is interesting for today's readers toexamine if he also shared this belief. Furthermore, it has recently (i.e. within the last twentyfiveyears) been a frequently-discussed topic, because Chinua Achebe, the famous Nigerianauthor, arose this question.So, first of all, his accusations will be looked at more clearly, in the following, it is to beregarded if these are actually true, and finally, one will see, if a final estimation is possible.1 Christine Bolt, Victorian Attitudes to Race (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971) ix.2 Sally Wehmeier (ed.) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, 6th ed. (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2000) 1042.