Construction Of Empire And Race In Joseph Conrad's Two African Novels

This thesis analyzes the construction of empire and race in the two African novels written by Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness and An Outpost of Progress. Conrad's African trip enabled him to get in contact with Africa. He witnessed layers of futility, barbarism and inhuman cruelty, pursuit of economic profits and lies on the part of the civilized European invaders. He came to Africa with an adventurous spirit and left totally disillusioned. Yet Conrad's criticism of the new imperialism does not mean that he criticized colonialism as a whole, for he clearly points out that those conquerors in Africa are no colonists in the real sense.In these two novels Africa enters the stories only as a background and is obviously described as the other world, totally different from Europe. The Africans are primitive and vigorous, having no history or language. Africa is a mysterious land, full of primitive vigor, lethal temptations, and barbaritistic customs, which test the Europeans'constraint.It is conspicuous that Conrad cannot get rid of the influence of the traditional conviction of the relationship between the Occident and the Orient: the strong and the weak, a conviction which is deeply rooted in Western literature. This thesis mainly applies Said's theory of Orientalism to the analysis of these issues.