Scarica INTRODUZIONE SU CONRAD, IL SUO CONTESTO STORICO E "HEART OF DARKNESS" e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! CONRAD AND “HEART OF DARKNESS”: “Heart od darkness” is one of Conrad’s masterpieces and it wants to be a denounce against imperialism and colonialism. The story takes place in Congo. CONGO: Congo is situated in western-central Africa. Its capital city is Kinshasa, a city very rich in row materials. A lot of European countries’ leaders were interested in it. The absolutely most interested one was King Leopold II, the Belgian king. He was very rich and ambitious to be came a rich person, but for himself: not for his nation. He never went to Congo but he colonized it and he became its king from 1885 to 1908; in other words, he dominated the territory for 23 years, even if he never went there. In that years, 10 million people died because he exploited them: he made them work non-stop without receiving any payment. Moreover, people had nothing to eat and they lived in very antihygienic conditions. Consequently, people died also because of starvation or sickness. King Leopold II became rich on the shoulders of that poor people. NB: in that time the name of Congo was “The Congo Free State”. At a certain point, the situation was becoming so unacceptable that even the Belgian government – who, moreover, was not receiving any money – started protesting. Then, King Leopold II resigned and from 1908 onwards the govern took power. The government changed the name of Congo into “The Belgium Congo”. NB: the fact that the government had taken power did not imply that the bad treatments had been ended, but the situation for poor people became a little bit better. Congo, however, wanted its independence, but it became independent only in 1960 and when it happened, they changed their name into “The Democratic Republic Of The Congo” In 2020 King Philippe, the Belgium King, for he first time went to Congo and publicly apologized for what his ancestors did before him and Belgium promised: - some money to be given to the children of the victims - some schools to be opened Conrad was born in Poland in 1857 and died in 1924. His father was a very famous writer, poet and activist. Conrad’s father manifested and rebelled against Russia and, for this reason, he was sent with his whole family in Siberia for punishment (because doing that in Poland was not acceptable). When this fact happened, Conrad was only 4 years old. After the forced relocation in Siberia, because of the temperatures and the conditions in which they had to live, every member of the family started having health problems, that they carried on throughout their lives. After the relocation in Siberia, the family was sent to Ukraine. At 12 years old, Conrad became an orphan and started living with his uncle.
