GRGR Re: Achebe on Conrad

[jbor]

I agree with both Otto and Kevin on this. Conrad's scathing critique of 
colonial imperialism in *HoD*, while written from *within* the colonial
mindset, was still an important stepping stone along the way to
post-colonialism in literature (and attitudes). *HoD* certainly marks an
advance on, say, Kiplingesque writing, and without it writers such as Achebe
himself, Soyinka, Tutuola, Nadine Gordimer, Anita Desai or even Naipaul
probably wouldn't have found a voice at all. Conrad's novel was a product of
its time certainly (neither Cary's *Mr Johnson* nor Naipaul's later work can
be excused on this ground, however), but contemporary criticism of *HoD* is
still valid imo. In it the African natives are neither humanised nor
individuated, as Achebe complains, and this is a flaw in the vision, a
residue of the same colonialist mentality which Conrad derides with his
depiction of Kurtz; and, *very* unlike Pynchon's comparable portrayals of
Enzian, Ombindi & co in *GR*.


Otto:
>
> PS Have you ever heard of  "Max Havelaar" by Multatuli (Edouard Douwes
> Dekker, 1820-1887), a Dutch novel and valuable social document about
> colonialism that preceded Conrad.


I hadn't, I shall look it up -- thanks. I found this interview with a
contemporary Indonesian writer which you might be interested in: Conrad and
Multatuli both get mentions:

http://chaos.press.jhu.edu/demo/yale_journal_of_criticism/9.1toer01.html

Here is a footnote from the interview:

     I have put the superlative "greatest Dutch writer" in brackets to
   convey the importance Pramoedya attached to Multatuli, the pseudonym of
   Eduard Douwes Dekker, the famous Dutch author credited with awakening the
   Dutch literary revival of 1880, and whose masterpiece, Max Havelaar
   (1860), an attack on the injustices of Dutch colonialism, drew from his
   experiences as a colonial agent in Indonesia. Discussing the importance
   of Multatuli for Pramoedya, Resink explained that, as "the greatest Dutch
   writer," Multatuli articulated the full ambivalence of Dutch colonialism
   and European humanism. Resink also said that Pramoedya often quoted an
   aphorism of Multatuli's, paraphrased by Resink as "the calling of a human
   being is to be human." In his acceptance of the Wertheim award in August
   1995, Pramoedya invoked Multatuli as follows: "Multatuli was a great man,
   the greatest of Dutch humanists who said 'The vocation of human beings is
   to be human.'"

You might also be interested in Bruce Chatwin's *The Viceroy of Ouidah*
(1980; filmed as *Cobra Verde* in 1987 and starring Klaus Kinski, directed
by Werner Herzog who was a great friend and admirer of Chatwin), which is
the fictionalized biography of a Brazilian slave trader in 19th-century
Dahomey.

http://www.seeseiten.de/user/dieselheart/filme/cobv/cobv.htm


Kevin:

> Not to mention that Europe seems just as mythic and unreal as Africa in
> _Heart of Darkness_.  The only place in the book that is, literally,
> anchored to reality is the boat on the Thames.
>
> However, Achebe does have a very good point.  _HoD_ may be very
> well-crafted, moving, and artistically interesting, but by Achebe's
> standards, this is not enough.  A great amount of _HoD_'s tensions are
> driven by perspective, and it is worthwhile to criticize it from
> perspectives not found in the book.

This is, again, extremely well put. Thank you.

best