11 April 2015
By: Jacob Corson, Andrea Sanford, Ella Simcox, Reagan West

(The Telegraph)
• Genre: frame story, colonial literature, quest literature
•
• Author: Joseph Conrad
Published: 1902
• Type of Literature:
Novella
(Joseph Conrad)
• Setting:
1. a ship in England
(1899)
2. European City and
Belgian Congo in
Africa (early/mid
1890’s)

• Critics started making a deeper analysis on the book
• The language towards the people
• Racism became noticed
• Deteriorated morals of the white men
• Many suggested the book de-humanized
Africans
• Was racism just in the characters or was it
Conrad's view?
(Joseph Conrad)

• Customs are seen as foolish
•
•
•
•
•
•
• African language is
“satanic litany”
• Africans are viewed as unequal
• Master/slave relationship
(Shmoop Editorial Team)

Chapter 1 Quote:
“'What a row the brute makes!' said the indefatigable man with the moustaches, appearing near us. 'Serve him right.
Transgression—punishment—bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way.
This will prevent all conflagrations for the future”
(Shmoop Editorial Team)
(Journal Entry Heart of Darkness)

Chapter 2 Quote:
"He [Kurtz] began with the argument that we whites… 'must necessarily appear to them in the nature of supernatural beings - we approach them with the might of a deity,‘...From that point he soared and took me with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic
Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm“
(Shmoop Editorial Team)

Chapter 3 Quote:
"I had no idea of the conditions, he [the harlequin] said: these heads were the heads of rebels. I shocked him excessively by laughing.
Rebels! What would be the next definition I was to hear? There had been enemies, criminals, workers—and these were rebels. Those rebellious heads looked very subdued to me on their sticks"
(Shmoop Editorial Team)
(Category Archives: Heart of Darkness)

• widely accepted • Race-thinking was considered normal
• Considered a masterpiece
• An adventure
• Racism seemed natural=critics didn’t think of it
(Heart of Darkness)

(Literary Arts)
(CONTINUED)
Later in 1977…
• Chinua Achebe criticized the novella for being racist (1975)
• People start considering racism
•
• Remarks it as offensive
& inappropriate
Gets people thinking
• Blacks have many of the same rights/freedoms by this time
(Heart of Darkness)

•
Book banned in some areas…
• Language
Violence
• Has been banned in
Germany, Poland,
USSR, and parts of
America
• Racism
• Many critics went against the novella
(Heart of Darkness)

If Heart of Darkness was published today…
• Racism still exists around the world & is an alive issue
• Very little support
• Everyone seen as equal in America
• Would still interest readers
• The book would promote racism & therefore would get a lot of criticism
• a debated topic
(Shmoop Editorial Team)
(Book Cover Redesign for Heart of Darkness)

"Book Cover Redesign for Heart of Darkness." Concept Feedback RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.conceptfeedback.com/conceptpage/5465/book-cover-redesign-for-heart-of-darkness/>.
"Category Archives: Heart of Darkness." N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<https://whybehumansp13.wordpress.com/category/heart-of-darkness/>.
"Heart of Darkness." - Modernism Lab Essays. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Heart_of_Darkness>.
"Joseph Conrad." Heart of Darkness. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/nature/conrad.htm>.

(CONTINUED)
"Journal Entry Heart of Darkness." Lindsay Ross. N.p., 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<https://lindsaybrookeross.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/journal-entry-heart-ofdarkness/>.
"Literary Arts." Literary Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.literaryarts.org/archive/chinua-achebe/>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Heart of Darkness Race Quotes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop
University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.shmoop.com/heart-of-darkness/race-quotes-6.html>.
" The Telegraph." Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/7922158/Polandquotes-the-world-in-words.html?image=1>.