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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.”
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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…”
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.
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 => Fates or Nornes The Sepuchral city => Descent into the underworld ( Odyssey and Aeneid) The river => Styx, Lethe (Rivers in the underworld) The dying Negroes => The lifeless shadows in the underworld The journey itself => the journeys of Odysseus and Aeneas
Christian Mythology The novel has repeatedly been compared to Dante’sDivine 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
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
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 man’s 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 man’s burden’, the film questions the right of one country to impose its political system on another. ‘The horror…the horror’
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”.
Heart of Darkness An Brief Look at Conrad’s Life and Works, Themes and Motifs in Heart of Darkness, and Apocalypse Now
Joseph Conrad’s 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 • Conrad’s mother died of pneumonia in 1865.
Joseph Conrad’s 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
