König Heart of Darkness: A Racist Text?

1. Auflage 2003
ISBN: 978-3-638-22899-2
Verlag: GRIN Publishing
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E-Book, Englisch, 13 Seiten

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2 (B), University of Tubingen (English Philology), course: Proseminar II Literatur: Heart of Darkness and its Transformations, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The following essay will deal with the question whether or not Joseph Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness is a racist text.

This question comes up because this novel was written during the age of Victoria, a time of

imperialism and colonialism where the term “race” changed its meaning and became a

monolithic factor.

The term ‘race’ was first used in English literature as denoting a class of people, even

a family. In eighteen-century usage it was possible to speak of a race of animals or

birds. By the nineteenth century this imprecision was fully recognized, and it was

suggested that the term was purely subjective, and illuminated the ‘opinion of the

investigator rather than … the object of investigation.’ (1Bolt: 1971, ix).

So from then on, racism, which can be defined as “ the belief that races have distinctive cultural

characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with

an intrinsic superiority over others” (2Wehmeier:2000,1042) was often included or propagated

in literary works.

As Conrad was a member of the Victorian society it is interesting for today’s readers to

examine if he also shared this belief. Furthermore, it has recently (i.e. within the last twentyfive

years) been a frequently-discussed topic, because Chinua Achebe, the famous Nigerian

author, arose this question.

So, first of all, his accusations will be looked at more clearly, in the following, it is to be

regarded if these are actually true, and finally, one will see, if a final estimation is possible.

1 Christine Bolt, Victorian Attitudes to Race (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971) ix.

2 Sally Wehmeier (ed.) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English,6th ed. (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2000) 1042.

Autoren/Hrsg.

König, Christina