Joseph Conrad Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski 1857 Berdichev, Poland now in the Ukraine 1924 Kent

Heart of Darkness 1899/1902 Personal experience: 1890 comander of a vessel on the Congo River for a Belgian company. Marlow, the narrator, tells the story of a journey he made in the Belgian Congo. He is horrified by the greed of the ivory traders and by the way they exploit indigenous people.

„back to the earliest beginnings of the world“ He learns about Mr. Kurtz, the company‘s best agent, who has set up his camp in the very heart of the ivory country. Kurtz is ill and Marlow sets off to find him. Travelling up the river he has the sensation of going towards the dark heart of humanking and „back to the earliest beginnings of the world“

„The horror! The horror!“ He learns that Kurtz has become like a god to the tribesmen. As the ship approaches, Marlowe finds evidence of human sacrifice. He deduces that Kurtz has gone beyond the limits of civilisation. He takes Kurtz back, but Kurtz dies on the journey back

interpretations Pro-imperialist: a story about colonialism in the stream of imperialist fiction, travel and adventure writing, popular among his contemporaries who shared the idea of a project of civilizing people. They ideologically supported the idea of the growth of the British Empire. A critic of imperialism: as a denunciation of the mechanisms of empire. The destructive process of colonialism in Africa, ist cruelty and exploitation.

Marlow, a conventional hero? more ambivalent and problematic than the typical adventure hero His journey is the quest of the mythic hero who faces obstacles and trials to acquire knowledge for himself and his people (Homer, Aeneas, Dante) he has to face difficulties connected with both: the dark environment and the dark nature of people, both black and white

Marlow and Kurtz Marlow Strives to hold on to his integrity Work and duty become the value of a moral principle Kurtz Progressive and liberal An artist yields himself to instinct A first example of moral nihilism and inner hollowness

Heart of Darkness unknown and wild country darkness of human nature an interior journey into human consciousness Civilized man, freed from the restraints of society at heart is savage and instinctual

English adopted me Conrad‘s first languages were Polish and French, but he chose English because: No English word is simply a word but an instrument for exciting blurring emotions. No English word has clean edges so it was ideal to express his complex vision of life.

Exotic, secluded settings Congo or China, not because people are different there, not conventional adventure stories. But The individual, their complex character and problems stood out clearly against an exotic setting. Not the interaction between individual and society was to be focused on, but the isolated character and his inner conflicts.

Aim: why do I write? No amusing No teaching Catch the complex pattern of life Present the fleeting moments of life to explore the meaning of the human situation. > Joyce: epiphany > Woolf: moments of being

an „oblique“ style Not the plot is important but The effect of the events on the character. Conrad‘s characters = tragic heroes Solitary figures without past or future, viewed through the mind of others or through their actions.

narrator No omniscient narrator but several points of view: 1st-person-narrator, an invisible narrator, journals, letters in order to distance the author/narrator and leave the reader free to decide for himself (relativism of moral values)

time no chronological sequence but time shifts to show how past, present and future are superimposed in human mind.

themes Conflict: professional duties – personal feelings. Organized society gives men confidence. but confidence is deceptive because when man is alone and surrounded by a wild and hostile background