Colonialism and Imperialism - A Post-colonial Study of...

A Post-colonial Study of Heart of Darkness In this paper, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness will be examined by using a recent movement, Post-colonial Study that mainly focuses on the relationship between the Self and the Other, always intertwined together in considering one’ identity. The Other is commonly identified with the margin, which has been oppressed or ignored by Eurocentric, male-dominated history. Conrad is also conscious of the Others interrelated status with the Self, but his main concern is the Self, not the Other, even though he deals with the natives. As Edward W. Said indicates in his Orientalism, the Orient (or the Other) has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea,†¦show more content†¦Namely, Marlow focuses on an idea--an ideal slogan--which is employed to impose higher civilization on uncivilized world: What redeems it is the idea only . . . not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice (7). Seeing the idea as a false concept fabricated by ideological colonialism, Said notes: the idea is only a mans desire for protection from the impinging confusions of the world. Immediately after the intellectual organization of the world, according to the idea, there comes the expedient of devotion to the idea,which in turn breeds conquest according to the idea.2 Consequently, the idea reflects Eurocentric self-image. As soon as this Eurocenric image is constructed, Westerners begin to think that the world should be reorganized according to the image. From the beginning of the novel, imperialism is thus justified even as a sacred mission to deliver light to the darkness of uncivilized society by Marlow’s colonial discourse, which does not consider the marginal, silenced voices of the natives, or the Other in the text. Marlow attempts to compare his journey into the Congo to one that penetrates a primitive world. Since Europeans like Conrad possess a progressive, Eurocentric vision of world history, the Congo is described as theShow MoreRelatedEssay about Heart of Darkness1745 Words   |  7 PagesPost-colonial studies have often created this myth about the European intent for Africa, a tale that has led many westerners to believe in the noble role of European policy of civilizing Africa. However, literal materials have said little about the evils that surrounded the well sometimes ill-disguised motives of explorers, colonial administrators and their adventures. This essay provides an in depth review of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a classical novella that illustrates without bias theRead More The Lie of Imperialism Exposed in Literature Essay3048 Words   |  13 Pagesconcerning colonialism, then a comparative study of colonial and postcolonial works is essential for attain ing a full understanding of the far-reaching effects of European imperialism (Groden and Kreiswirth 582). Reading colonial literature in dialogue with postcolonial literature engenders a more complete interpretation of the effects of imperialism by creating a point of reference from which to begin the revelation and the healing of cultural wounds resultant from European colonialism. PostcolonialRead MoreDr Conrad s Heart Of Darkness And Salih s Season Of Migration Essay2064 Words   |  9 PagesThe unpleasant and painful experience of colonialism in Africa has great effects on almost all faces of life such as language, education, religion, popular culture and the like. Colonial and post-colonial novels in Africa have therefore become unusual weapons used to change the European idea about the third world peoples and to illustrate how the European colonizer could create unequal relations of power, based on binary oppositions such as â€Å"First–world† and â€Å"thir d–world†; â€Å"white† and â€Å"black†, â€Å"colonizer†Read MoreThe Distorted Images in Heart of Darkness4513 Words   |  19 PagesThe distorted images in Heart of Darkness Abstract In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad exposes the evil of the imperialism and pays sympathy to the oppressed Africans. But affected by imperialist ideology, he serves as a racist and a defender of the imperialism when he attempts to condemn the colonizers. This paper will be analyzing the distorted images in Heart of darkness from the perspective of post-colonialism and Orientalism theory. The present paper is divided into five parts: Part 1 isRead MoreThe Devastating Power of Western Colonialism Essay1762 Words   |  8 PagesThe colonial efforts of an imperialist power leave a wake of suffering and death, usually for the mere purpose of propagating political, economic or military advantages. The culture and status of the colonized is forever altered by the often cruel and violent actions taken by the colonizers during their initial struggle for influence, along with the long-term impacts that slavery, subjugation, cultural appropriation and linguistic imperialism have over a colonized region. Hegemonic rule and full-scaleRead MoreAnalysis Of S Americanah Through A Post Colonial Prism4297 Words   |  18 PagesCHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE’S AMERICANAH THROUGH A POST-COLONIAL PRISM 1. Introduction Respected Marxist critic Frederic Jameson once described every instance of â€Å"third world literature† as necessarily nationally allegorical (69), an assertion spectacularly assailed by Aijaz Ahmad (77-82). But it is possible to close our eyes to Ahmad’s very valid misgivings and take a bird’s eye view of Jameson’s assertion: read in reaction to the phenomenon of imperialism, perhaps the literature of dominated peoplesRead MoreHeart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea: Depiction and Effect Due to Colonization2003 Words   |  9 PagesHeart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea: Depiction and Effect Due to Colonization Both Heart of Darkness and Wide Sargasso Sea deal with Englishmen, Charles Marlow and Mr. Rochester, who are placed in unfamiliar and different environments than accustomed to. These two characters not only deal with their own personal struggles, but are connected to the struggles of people close to them (namely Kurtz and Antoinette).Joseph Conrad and Jean Rhys attribute these hardships to the effects of colonialismRead More The Power of Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India Essay2845 Words   |  12 PagesThe Power of Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India      Ã‚  Ã‚   John A. McClure writes in Kipling and Conrad that as the twentieth century opened, the artists and intellectuals of the age increasingly came to believe that imperial rule, if inevitable in the short run, was an inglorious enterprise that deformed both those who ruled and those who submitted (153). Joseph Conrad and E. M. Forster were among these artists and each expressed their misgivings about the inglorious enterpriseRead MoreAnalysis Of Marlow s Heart Of Darkness Essay2381 Words   |  10 Pagesthe Earth. (Conrad) Are the first words spoken aloud by Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow goes on the say that he was thinking about the Roman conquerors who came to England 1900 years ago. This comparison that Marlow divulges into in the beginnings of his story frames this story and what it intends to cover in its subject matter. Marlow begins here his only overt characterization of imperialism. He puts Rome in the position of the civilized and the native islanders in the positionRead More The Meaning of Heart of Darkness in the Post-Colonial Climate3726 Words   |  15 PagesThe Meaning of Heart of Darkness in the Post-Colonial Climate Since its publication in 1899, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has rarely been disputed on the basis of its literary merits; in fact, it was long seen as one of the great novels of the burgeoning modern era, a sort of bridge between the values and storytelling styles of the waning Victorian period and those of the modern era (Gatten), and regarded a high-ranking space amidst the great literature of the century, if not the