JOSEPH CONRAD E HEART OF DARKNESS, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica JOSEPH CONRAD E HEART OF DARKNESS e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! JOSEPH CONRAD LIFE Joseph Conrad was born in Poland in a very patriotic household; his father was an important political figure and his actions led him and his family in exile in Russia. During this period Conrad knew the loneliness because this country and its traditions didn’t reflect his being. When his parents died, he was brought up by his uncle, who gave him money to escape in order to reach Great Britain. After having learnt the language and having received the license to be considered an English subject, he began his career has a seaman. His several voyages put him in contact with men from different social classes and from a different background from his own. In 1890 he received a commission which took him to Africa and in particular in Congo; when he came back, he devoted himself to writing. Some of his most popular novels are: “The heart of darkness”, “The secret agent”, “Lord Jim”, “The shadow line” and “The nigger of the narcissus”. HEART OF DARKNESS Heart of darkness is a novel publish by Joseph Conrad in 1899. The story is set in Congo at the end of the 19th century at an unspecific date. but his aim was to denounce in general all the exploitations and the imperialism. PLOT SETTING + CONGO “Heart of darkness” and many other of his novels, are set at the sea or in exotic places: in this case case the story is set in Congo but in general Conrad choses places he knows well in order to be able to distinguished on what focus the attention since he generally wants to isolate characters and highlight their problems and their inner conflicts. As regards Congo, Conrad went there in 1890 after having received a voyage commission and spent 6 months there; In Congo, he probably came in contact with the exploitation of the natives and with the cruelty of king Leopon II, who gradually reduced Congo’s independence (even if it was a free state) in order to exploit fully its reserves of ivory and rubber; with his wickedness and his miserly soul, he killed over then 10 million people. Conrad lived during the era of imperialism and his indignation was a generalised criticism to all form of imperialism. (ex. USE OF SARCASM) THE INDRODUCTION OF NEW NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES Conrad captured the mood of change of the last decades of the 19th century by using new narrative techniques: - NO CHRONOLOGIAL ORDER: People cannot live life in a perfect chronological order since some things can happen at same time; in order to recreate this illusion of life being lived by several people, Conrad don’t use chronological order. - NARRATION WITHIN NARRATION (FRAME NARRATION): At the beginning there a first anonymous narration who explains generally the “frame”/setting of the novel and that introduces the protagonist, who is also the other fundamental narrator. In “Herat of Darkness, at the very beginning an anonymous narrator introduces the setting and the characters and explains that the story will be told by Marlow to the other seamen while they are waiting to sail. This anonymous narrator introduces Marlow who, through, flashback tell his memories of Africa. (ex. DIRECT SPEECH) - RETROSPECIVE NARRATION: The story itself is a long flashback because it is an old experience lived by Marlow; as a consequence, there are continuous shifts backwards and forwards: when the story is in the past Marlow is telling his memories, on the contrary, when the story is in the present Marlow is referring to the other men on the Nellie STYLE - CREATION OF SUSPENCE: Conrad, during the narration, wants to create suspense and interest; as a matter of fact, he delays details by using suspension points - SARCASM-IRONY: Conrad often uses sarcastic/ironic sentences for two reasons: 1) he wants to criticize in a bitter/stronger way natives’ exploitation 2) trough Conrad’s irony, the reader is informed that Marlow has created an image of Kurtz that may be the prototype of the man he himself would have liked to be because he feels as he lived his life incompletely; nevertheless, Kurtz paid his recklessness with death. THE INDIVIDUAL COSCIOUSNESS + THE HEART OF DARKNESS Conrad, who was a late Victorian novelist, thought the writer didn’t have a didactic or an evocative task, but rather, his aim was to explore the meaning of the human condition. Therefore, in almost all his works there is a man who, during the narration, realises the real values such as honesty, courage, pity or fidelity. As a matter of fact, “Heart of Darkness” can be read as Marlow’s mythical journey in search of the self, in order to bring back a new truth. Kurtz was a progressive and a liberal but when he went in the jungle he has been corrupted, probably because he went there without knowing himself (in fact he paid the price of his madness with death); on the contrary, Marlow didn’t transgress his limits because he knew his individual responsibilities and came back without fully understanding his experience, since for Conrad, the essence of existence is mysterious; in addition, Marlow has been able to restrain himself from the heart of darkness because, even if he recognized jungle’s fascination, he resisted to join in its unspeakable rites. CHINUA ACHEBE Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian professor of African literature at the university of Massachusetts; he analysed and criticized some novels, including “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. In his essay “An image of Africa” he denounced Europeans’ consideration of the countries they colonized; in particular, Achebe accused Conrad to be an utter racist for depicting Africa as “the other world”, namely Conrad, according to Achebe’s point of view, represented Africa using only negative aspects and stereotypes (Thames -> calm/flat – Congo river -> chaotic). Nevertheless, Achebe was convinced that Conrad was frightened by the similarities between black people and white people and therefore he tried to distance himself by calling them “niggers”. Even though Conrad is dead and wrote his novel in the 19th century, his prejudices are still very currant today, so Achebe concluded saying --- ALICE SEELY HARRIS Alice Seeley Harris was an English missionary, who went to the Congo in order to denounce natives’ exploitation and her photography really helped to expose the abuses and the slavery under the regime of Leopold II, king of Belgians. THE CHAIN-GANG - pag 453 - Dehumanization