Scarica Conrad's critique of imperialism in Heart of Darkness e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Conrad's critique of imperialism in Heart of Darkness Three different critics Raskin in "The Mythology of Imperialism" claimed that both Conrad and his character Marlow were changed by their experience in Congo Knapp Hay shows the differences between Marlow and Conrad, he believes that Marlow was sincere when he talked about the efficiency of British, while at the end of the story Conrad says that Marlow failed to see the British brutality Fleishman in "Conrad's politics" thinks that Conrad, by not condemning the "idea" of colonialism, is approving a certain form of it Initially he seems to justify British colonialism by saying that it is efficient Marlow talks about the efficiency and of the weakness of the other All fail in not to notice the material difference between Congo and other Colonies Efficiency It was promoted by the darwinism of the 19th century Many important personalities of that age were pro- imperialist, so we can read in this sense the words of Marlow "What saves us (British) is efficiency" Idea It is a more difficult concept, Marlow does not refer to the identification of people in the native society By knowing Kurtz, Marlow admires his idea of not "joining" the natives, but rather "improving" them Which are the reasons behind colonialism? Bismarck wanted to solidify national sentiment in Germany, England wanted to protect Suez, all Europeans countries wanted colonies for bargaining chips in the struggles between themselves Historians are divided between political reasons, financial reasons or material reasons (manufacturers and merchants) If the other colonies were ruled by another state, Congo was ruled by a single person: The Belgian King Leopold II Leopold conducted a brutal persecution that decimated the population of Congo until the Berlin powers acted against his regime in 1906 Heart of Darknes is full of details that attest to Leopold's incapacity even if he was never mentioned A proof of his inefficiency is the currency system Every other colony had a strong economy, but Leopold was not interested in this (turning Africans in consumers), just in forced laborers This took to constricts traders to rely on local unstable currencies (at least 7 in 1897) Marlow tells the story of the crew that was paid with three pieces of brass wire, this shows the ridiculous economic system of Congo The "Manchester Guardians" wrote in 1902 that Condrad did not make any attack to colonialism and imperialism Effectively, he talks about different kinds of colonialisms and this shows his complexity For example he approves, at least in part, the Boer War in South Africa This does not mean that we must consider him as pro-imperialist, he always struggled against colonialism, of whatever form We also have to take in consideration that the anti imperialism at that time was not the same of nowadays Did Conrad criticize imperialism? Yes He used darwinism's concepts because they were accepted by the audience and this facilitated his attack against Leopold II In the story, if at the beginning Marlow seems amused by the domintion in Congo, then he changes his perspective becoming more bitter Conrad's major critique is that imperialism destroys indigenous culture Even if the description of Congo is not detailed, we notice a general attack to all those countries that delete other cultures
