Anticolonialism

1
Anticolonialism
Conrad about colonialism

• The conquest of the earth, which mostly means
  the taking it away from those who have a
  different complexion or lightly flatter
  noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when
  you look into it too much.
• a taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it
  all like the whiff from some corpse.
• In an essay Conrad calls the colonial
  exploitation of the Congo, the vilest
  scramble for loot that ever dis- figured the
  history of human conscience

2
Myth

• In the King Arthur myths a knight in shining
  amour goes on a quest. Typically a quest for the
  holy grail.
• The quest usually involves a number of trials.
  Some of those are physical, but the toughest
  tests are usually spiritual, a test of moral
  fibre or personal integrity.
• The trials do not necessarily lead to wealth and
  fame, but equally often to insight and
  humility.

3
Mythology, classical and Norse
There are a number of references to Greek and
Norse Mythologyand to the Iliad, the Odyssey and
the Aeneid The women in the Brussels office gt
Fates or Nornes The Sepuchral city gt Descent
into the underworld ( Odyssey and Aeneid) The
river gt Styx, Lethe (Rivers in the
underworld) The dying Negroes gt The lifeless
shadows in the underworld The journey itself gt
the journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas
4
Christian Mythology
The novel has repeatedly been compared to
DantesDivine Comedy. Dante also undertakes a
journey to the underworld, to theChristian
Hell. Other parallels are The river snake
temptation The dying Negroes souls in limbo The
Inner Station the inner sanctum of Hell, Inferno
Dante (1265-1321)with his Divina Commedia
5
Psychology, psychoanalysis
More than 20 years before Freud published his
tripartitedivision of the mind into Superego,
Ego and Id, Conradseems to use similar ideas
superego
the policeman (p. 85) your own innate
strength (p.85)..he was hollow at the core
(97) powers of darkness (p. 85) But the
wilderness had found him out early and the
whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating (p.
97)
ego
id
6
Apocalypse Now

• Apocalypse Now is only loosely based on Heart of
  Darkness.
• However, the main plot and quite a few individual
  lines have been lifted directlyfrom the novel.
• Like the novel it is an delving into the
  darkness of mans heart.
• Like the novel, the film wants to penetrate all
  the way to the reptile brain.
• Where the novel may be called anticolonialist,
  the film may be seen as anti-war.
• There is the same basic conflict of a
  technologically advanced culture attempting
  to impose its will on a less developed people.
• If the novel questions the white mans
  burden, the film questions the right of one
  country to impose its political system on
  another.

The horrorthe horror
7
Other parallels between Apocalypse Now and Heart
of Darkness

• Same basic plot An man goes up a river in order
  to get another man who, in the process, takes on
  an ominous significance
• and e.g..
• The helmsman is killed by a spear
• Kurtz camp is in both versions a vision of hell
  (in the novel some of the natives wear horns-
  in the film we see them.)
• Both Kurtzes are in opposition to their
  superiors.
• Both Kurtzes are extremely gifted.
• Kurtz voice plays a major role in both works.
  (Film His voice really put the hook in me.
  Novel The man presented himself as a voice.

8
Snake skeleton
9
Heart of Darkness

• An Brief Look at Conrads Life and Works, Themes
  and Motifs in Heart of Darkness, and Apocalypse
  Now

10
Joseph Conrads Life

• Born Josef Teodore Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, in
  Podolia, Ukraine, in 1857.
• Conrad's father had studied law and languages at
  St Petersburg University and wrote radical poems
  and plays.
• His father and mother, Apollo and Ewa, were
  political activists. They were imprisoned 7
  months and eventually deported to Vologda
• Conrads mother died of pneumonia in 1865.

11
Joseph Conrads Life

• Conrad eventually became a British merchant
  sailor and eventually a master mariner and
  citizen in 1886.
• He traveled widely in the east.
• He took on a stint as a steamer captain (1890) in
  the Congo, but became ill within three months and
  had to leave.
• In 1896, he married Jessie George a typist from
  Peckham.
• Conrad retired from sailing and took up writing
  full time.
• Writing took a physical and emotional toll on
  Conrad. The experience was draining