Conrad

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Oh, I found that 3rd edition of conrad's heart of darkness,
it was buried in a box. 

Ian Watt's essay "Impressionism and Symbolism in Heart of
Darkness" is included. In it he asks, "What does Kurtz
actually do and why don't we see him doing it?" 

What does Weissmann actually do in GR and why do we see him
doing it? 


http://www.thenation.com/issue/000710/0710north.shtml

For Achebe, this excuse is not good enough. He does not deny
Conrad's
    "great talents," evidenced even in Heart of Darkness
itself. But he
    vigorously criticizes using

        Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the
African as
        human factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield
devoid of
        all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering
European
        enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous
and
        perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the
role of props
        for the break-up of one petty European mind? But
that is not
        even the point. The real question is the
dehumanization of
        Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has
fostered
        and continues to foster in the world. And the
question is
        whether a novel which celebrates this
dehumanization, which
        depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be
called a
        great work of art. My answer is: No, it cannot. 

The 3rd Edition also includes Chinua Achebe's "An Image of
Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" 

Achebe raised some interesting questions.  

Does the novel in fact celebrate dehumanization? 

Does it in fact depersonalize a portion of the human race? 

Can a work of art, a fiction, a novel depersonalize a
portion of the human race?

Can it do so and not depersonalize all of the human race? 

Can a novel celebrate dehumanization and celebrate any
portion of the human race? 

What is a portion of the human race anyway? 

Has even Achebe's work become something we cannot call a
great work of art?

What is great about "Things Fall Apart"?

Are the things that make it an essential work in the
cannon the same things that made Conrad's novels essential
works? 

What was considered great about Conrad's work? Is it still
great? 

Achebe says,  "Conrad is one of the great stylists of modern
fiction and a good story-teller into the bargain." He says
he "wants to identify the guilty ones."

Dies he? WHo are the guilty ones?  

Conrad is more than a great stylist and good storyteller. 

His says that Conrad falls into a different class. Class? 

What class id Achebe in? 



http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~vbusse/conrad.html

http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/vol2no2/descent.html

http://www.fms.k12.nm.us/fhs/HeartofDarkness.html

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~csicseri/

http://www.unc.edu/~pinaula/deconstr.htm

http://www.brysons.net/academic/conrad.html