Presentations of Africa and Africans in 'Heart of Darkness'
- Created by: emi_dow
- Created on: 26-08-18 15:09
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- Heart of Darkness - Presentation of Africa and Africans
- Feminine associations / depiction of females
- Kurtz's mistress
- Portrayed as wild
- "a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman"
- Personification - she represents Africa
- Africa as a woman
- Underlying sexism shown in the attitudes of the colonisers towards Africa
- Disregard for all life already in Africa
- Exploitation
- Mother figure
- Nurtures the Africans
- "the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again"
- Underlying sexism shown in the attitudes of the colonisers towards Africa
- Africa as a woman
- Personification - she represents Africa
- "a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman"
- Contrast with Kurtz's intended at home in England
- She does not fit the European ideal for a woman - shows how Africa doesn't conform to European opinions
- However, she is still sexualised and used (?) by the colonisers as they view her as exciting - different
- She does not fit the European ideal for a woman - shows how Africa doesn't conform to European opinions
- Portrayed as wild
- Africa as a woman
- Underlying sexism shown in the attitudes of the colonisers towards Africa
- Disregard for all life already in Africa
- Exploitation
- Mother figure
- Nurtures the Africans
- "the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again"
- Underlying sexism shown in the attitudes of the colonisers towards Africa
- Kurtz's mistress
- Light and dark imagery
- Africa is the darkness
- It is backward and primitive, the colonisers believe they are helping to enlighten people and save them from their dark lives
- Marlow feels he has journeyed into the 'heart of darkness' - the crossover point between the corruption of the Kurtz and the damage it has done to isolated and primitive Africa
- The darkness comes from the greed, corruption and capitalism
- Marlow feels he has journeyed into the 'heart of darkness' - the crossover point between the corruption of the Kurtz and the damage it has done to isolated and primitive Africa
- "we penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness"
- It is backward and primitive, the colonisers believe they are helping to enlighten people and save them from their dark lives
- The colonisers are the darkness
- They are damaging Africa, exploiting the resources and people
- They have ruined nature and culture
- Europe is spreading its darkness to Africa
- The darkness comes from the greed, corruption and capitalism
- Darkness is present in London
- "mournful gloom"
- Many Africans died at the hands of colonisers
- They are damaging Africa, exploiting the resources and people
- Link to the painting which is in the cabin
- "a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch"
- Image of the roman goddess of justice
- Irony? highlighting the lack of justice in Africa
- Idea of Africa (the woman) passing judgement on the proceedings
- The blindfold
- Europeans are blind to the crimes which are happening
- Idea that Africa will overcome the darknesss of the colonisers - carrying a torch against the darkness
- Image of the roman goddess of justice
- "the background was sombre"
- refers to the history of colonisation?
- "a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch"
- Africa is the darkness
- Prehistoric
- Seen by the Europeans as undeveloped
- Desire to 'help' Africa and the people
- "we were wonderers on a prehistoric earth"
- View the people as similar to 'early' humans
- "they still belonged to the beginnings of time"
- "The prehistoric man"
- Seen by the Europeans as undeveloped
- Alien & 'other'
- Othering
- Def: View or treat (a person or group of people) as intrinsically different from and alien to oneself.
- Marlow feels as if he is on another planet
- "never before did this land … appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought"
- Marlow can't understand Africa - to him it seems unwelcoming.. surprisingly....
- "The earth seemed unearthly"
- "never before did this land … appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought"
- Descriptions of Africans which make them seem animalistic / non human
- "brutes"
- derogative term, implies stupidity - animalistic
- "brutes"
- Othering
- Feminine associations / depiction of females
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