Heart of Darkness

Topical/Historical

Emily Markanich

“Heart of Darkness is experience ... pushed a little (and only very little)

beyond the actual facts of the case.”

- Joseph Conrad

InspirationA Novella written in England between 1898 to

1899, Heart of Darkness was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s own personal journey into the Congo in 1890. It had been Conrad's boyhood dream to discover the heart of Africa—now that he had arrived he described what he found as "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience." Conrad later added, "All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.“The story is central to Conrad's work and vision, and it is difficult not to think of his Congo experiences as traumatic.

Publication

Heart of Darkness was originally serialized in Blackwood’s magazine in 1899, and later published by J.M. Dent & Sons in 1902 in the volume Youth: A Narrative.

Related Historical

Events

• The “Scramble for Africa” – battle between European nations for wealth and power in which countries competed in colonizing Africa

• Only interested in gaining wealth, European Nations didn’t care how it was gained nor who was killed for it.

• As many as six million Africans died during the brutal rubber trade, overseen by the Belgians.

• Many Africans were forced to be "carriers," for people on jungle expeditions that need to move cargo or smuggle ivory from one place to another.

Major Issues Dealt With

• The issue of class– According to Jared Campbell, a historian who has

written extensively on the British class system, the origin of the class system is land.

• Racism – Readers are often dismayed by racist language

found in the novella. – You have to remember that in 1890, when Conrad

did his trip up the Congo River, things were different.

– The word "nigger," like Negro, Niger, and the archaic slang word "neger," come from the Latin root for black.

Documentation

• http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/heartofdarkness.html

• http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/king-s06.shtml

• http://www.litcharts.com/lit/heartofdarkness/backgroundinfo

• http://www.utm.edu/staff/lalexand/brnovel/heart.htm

• http://wfps.k12.mt.us/teachers/carmichaelg/new_page_34.htm