A Textualization Of Late Victorian Imperialism

In British literature, Joseph Conrad is one of the most outstanding writers whose works have occasioned great appreciation and different interpretations. He came to writing after having been a sailor for nearly twenty years. Now he is considered one of the greatest British writers. His upbringing and his career as a sailor determined his choice of imperial settings and conflicts as his writing subjects. Heart of Darkness is one of his best works on imperial issues. It is prompted mainly by Conrad's own experience in Congo Free State in 1890, and shows us a scene in the heart of colonized Africa. Since its appearance in 1899, Heart of Darkness has impulse extensive critiques from various perspectives. It became extensively influential during subsequent decades. Critics have subjected them to political, moral, philosophical, psychological, and post-colonial interpretations, and so on so forth. However, there still needs a comprehensive and in-depth interpretation in ideological perspective to endow this novella some new connotation. This thesis will analyze and elucidate the multilevel ideological elements within the novella.Imperialism is never a simple act of accumulation and acquisition. It appears under the cover of racial and cultural superiority and is supported, even impelled by impressiveimperial ideology. Critics can read Heart of Darkness politically, as a texualization of imperialism. It carries a condemnation of colonial actions, as well as a sense of racial superiority. In fact, the theme of the novella is about on what basis the colonizers believe themselves superior to these distant countries' natives.At the end of the 19th century, European imperialism was viewed as "a crusade worthy of this century of progress." In the imperial assumptions of that era, Europe, especially England, is the center of the universe, leading the world in its civilization. In the contrast, the colonized area is mysterious, romantic, dangerous, inhabited by inferior savages. They are centuries behind Europe in social and moral development, and everything of them amounts to the darkness. This is the point of start of British liberal imperialism.During Conrad's lifetime, evolutionary theory grew rapidly. His society's eventual acceptance of Social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century was the start of a new phase in its ethnocentrism. Herbert Spencer wrote that the dominance of the white races was the result of inherited superiority, and Darwin spoke of "high" and "low" races; "stronger" and "weaker" nations. This provided a rationale for colonialist enterprise, and helped in enlisting public support for it. Its influence is evident in Heart of Darkness, where Marlow's traditional value of liberal imperialism was challenged. On the other hand the growth of universalistic, democratic, and socialist politics threatened to level the cultural differences-the specifically English institution and specifically English character-that the Victorian liberals had prized. The Rights of Man threatened to efface "the rights of Englishmen."Thus, British liberal Imperialism was stuck between the two extremes of racial determinism and an unbound faith in the universe of human nature. The novella shows the impasse that English liberal nationalism has reached as it confronts the results of imperialism and social Darwinism. It is the textualization of the real history.The present paper attempts to adopt a methodology of both textual analysis and historicizing perspective, reading Heart of Darkness as a textualization of late Victorian imperialism.Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, the paper consists of five parts:The introduction offers a brief description of the literary status of the author and the novella as well as a laconic review of the past criticisms and the layout of the thesis.These studies are followed by the present author's initiating point and theoretical framework, which will provide the ground for the forthcoming analysis.Chapter one makes a detailed survey of the ideological developme...