Conrad

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Conrads Heart of Darkness

• Africa, Imperialism, and Conquest

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Joseph Conrad

• Born 1857 in Russian-occupied Poland
• Patriot father family exiled in 1862
• Both parents dead of illness by 1869
• Conservative uncle took him in

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Conrad (Continued)

• Joined French Merchant Marines in 1874 at age 16
• Kicked out due to nationality suicide attempt
• Joined British Merchant Marines in 1878
• Left the sea, began writing in 1894
• Died in 1924
• Buried in Canterbury

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Real Life vs. Fiction

• Conrad's personal crisis mirrors collective
  crisis
• 1889-90 Conrad goes to Congo captains river
  steamboat to retrieve Klein
• Trauma illness haunt him the rest of his life

• HOD Marlow goes to Congo and captains river
  steamboat to retrieve Kurtz
• Traumatized for life

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Africa and Imperialism
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The People of the Congo
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Africa the heart of darkness?
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Africa the heart of darkness?
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Modernist Literature Style

• "Narrative frame" - narrator tells story of
  another character telling a story
• Marlows 1st-person narration limited
  omniscient not all-knowing introspective,
  discontinuous, fragmented, suggestive/evocative,
  a-rational connections
• Interior monologue, stream of consciousness,"
  flash-forward/ flash-back
• Associative (vs. linear) logic intertwines
  present awareness memory

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