Postcolonial Criticism In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

During the 19th century, Britain was the most powerful and influential nation in the world; its Empire was spread throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. Explorers were constantly going to these newly conquered lands to spread English culture in an attempt to “civilize” the natives that were living there. Joseph Conrad was an explorer who traveled around the world to the various regions under Britain’s control. Even though he may have taken pride in the extent of the British Empire’s territory, it does not mean that he agreed with their method of “civilizing” the natives after experiencing it first hand on his trip to the Congo. One might ask, how does Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ feed the concept of postcolonial criticism? Throughout the entirety of the work, we are shown British Imperialism through
"Impressionism" is the fragile skein of discourse which expresses—or disguises—this "schizophrenic" contradiction as an apparently harmonious whole.” I agree with Brantlinger’s view on “Heart of Darkness”. Throughout his work, it does not seem that he exclusively anti-imperialist or a complete racist. Although there are some racist elements in his writing, he does regard the Africans as human beings even if he may use some racist language towards them, whereas people of this time period didn’t even really consider the Africans as humans, but rather as savages to be conquered and civilized. Even though he speaks out against Britain’s Imperialism, he does not completely hate the idea of Imperialism as evidenced by his portrayal of Marlow as a good guy, albeit a bit naïve, who approves of Britain’s