Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)

"Authenticity comes from a single faithfulness: that to the ambiguity of experience." -- John Berger

First approaches

Page references to Conrad refer to the Norton Anthology edition

Title

Cf. Henry Morton Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1878); In Darkest Africa (1890).

Style

Setting

Narrator

Character

Structure

Consciousness

Language, as theme

Conrad

Possible topics for class report:

Suggestions for the report:

Further reading; the question of race

Candice Bradley, "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" (Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture) http://mural.uv.es/estferde/heart.html

Conrad, Heart of Darkness. Norton Critical Edition, ed. Robert Kimbrough (3rd ed. 1988)
PR 6005 O4 H42 1988

Joseph Conrad Society, UK: Student Resources

John Hope Franklin, George Washington Williams, a Biography (1985). [Williams's report on the Congo, pp. 264-279; Letter to King Leopold, pp. 192-195.]
E 185.97 W695 F833 1985

Guy Burrows, The Land of the Pigmies (1898). [King Leopold on The Sacred Mission of Civilization, p. 286.]
DT 644 B97 1898 BARD

Wack, Henry Wellington. The Story of the Congo Free State. . New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1905.
DT 652 W11 HSS:3

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Chinua Achebe, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Massachusetts Review, 18 (1977): 782-794. AS 30 M3 A2 Rutherford.

C. P. Sarvan, "Racism and The Heart of Darkness." International Fiction Review, 7 (1980): 6-10.
PN 3311 I62

Ian Watt, Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979). [See especially pp. 168-200, 249-253.]
PR 6005 O4 Z7 W34 1979


return to course page

Document prepared September 24th 2001 / revised October 6th 2011