Ecocritical Analysis Of The Road Of Colonialism

Joseph Conrad is among the most outstanding writers in English literature of the twentieth century. Apart from his sharp description of colonialism, Conrad has shown an ecological concern in his works. In most of his books, we can find the obvious illustration of the conflicts between human and nature, which are caused by the endless colonialism of Western civilization. And thus Conrad’s creations can also be categorized as ecoliterature. In current days, ecological crisis has become the most significant issue for the development of Earth and to dig into the ecological senses in Conrad’s novels is particularly necessary under such circumstance.For Conrad once called Youth, Heart of Darkness and The End of the Tether as a trio that consists of different ages of life, the youth, the middle and the senior. Through thorough literature review and detailed reading of the three novellas, the author of this thesis finds that they stand for the development of the road of Western colonialism as well, therefore an analysis of the three will be practiced in the perspective of deep ecology in three parts:Youth of Colonialism, Heyday of Colonialism and Decline of Colonialism. The theory of deep ecology that was first put forward by Norwegian ecologist Arne Naess, contains two major parts:ecoegalitarian and Self-realization. The thesis focuses on interpreting the ecological crises on both nature and spirit reflecting in the works and whether the colonialists’ self-realizations are successful or not in the process of promoting colonialism. By exploring the three stories from a new ecological scope, the thesis attempts to shed light on the contemporary environmental problems, and to advance critical diversification of Conrad’s works.