Achebe on Conrad

[jbor]

----------
>From: "Otto Sell" <o.sell at telda.net>
> 
> But isn't he just presenting how the "reality" was perceived by the
> Europeans in those days? Apart from being a great work of art "HoD" is a
> social document like "TFA".
>
But until Achebe's article appeared this is not how _HoD_ was perceived or
taught. Conrad's representation of Africans as dark-hearted savages went
absolutely unchallenged. This *racist* mentality -- because of the novel's
status within the canon *as* a "great work of art" -- was still being
perpetuated in the 1970s! Is *still*!

>
> I've never tried to prove that Achebe is a chauvinist. It was just an
> example how easily these things can be done.
>

It was certainly an argument you gave. And, as I've said: in the first
instance it is illogical, and in the second it is (arguably) inaccurate.

> Yes, and you do remember that I first said that necessarily Conrad is
> *racist* to a certain point, but I labeled Achebe's critic as unfair because
> Conrad was a step ahead of his contemporaries, but of course some steps
> behind of our or Achebe's "perception" of the world. His harsh verdict shows
> his emotional entanglement which I logically don't share. He judges Conrad
> as if the novel had been written 1970.
>

That's the whole point, isn't it? Until Achebe wrote his article the
"racist" pov that you've admitted is there in the novel *had never been
acknowledged*. The racist stereotypes were being perpetuated in classrooms
and critical studies *in the 1970s*. Sure it was a step ahead, and everyone
acknowledges that (*even* Achebe). But there was (at least) another step and
nobody had even noticed.


> To explain that "HoD" is no work of art is fair?

Now you're misquoting him! He questions whether _HoD_ "can be called a great
work of art." He praises both Conrad and the text for its "art". But *this*
is what concerns him:

    Conrad [ ... ] is undoubtedly one of the great stylists of modern
    fiction and a good storyteller into the bargain. His contribution
    therefore falls automatically into a different class -- permanent
    literature -- read and taught and constantly evaluated by serious
    academics. _Heart of Darkness_ is indeed so secure today that a leading
    Conrad scholar has numbered it "among the half-dozen greatest short
    novels in the English language." [ ... ]

http://www.erinyes.org/hod/image.of.africa.html


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