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JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924) - Coggle Diagram
JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)
LIFE
defined himself a 'homo duplex'
2 professional careers
theme of the double in his writing
double nationality
born in the Polish territory occupied by Russia from a insurrectionary and nationalist father
his family was forced into exile in Russia
his parents died and he was brought up by an uncle
he trained as a mariner sailing for 4 years on French merchant ships
joined an English ship and learnt the language for his Master Mariner qualification and to become a British subject
after receving a modest inheritance from his uncle, he devoted himself to writing
HEART OF DARKNESS
PLOT
The sailor Marlow and the other passengers of the Nellie are waiting for the tide to sail from London. Meanwhile, he tells about his first commission for a Belgian company in Africa, that was very inefficient. Marlow tells about how he was disappointed by the cruelty of the colonial exploitation
At the Company station, he heard the name of Kurtz, a company agent that was able to supply the most ivory and had become an idol for the natives. They arrange an expedition to bring Kurtz back to civilisation, because he was ill.
During the voyage, Marlow found out that Kurtz had been required to write a report by the International Society for the suppression of savage customs and he ended it with the postscript: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'
Finally, Marlow takes Kurtz on board but before he could interrogate him, he died whispering the words: 'the horror, the horror!'. When Marlow returned to Belgium, he told Kurtz fiancée that he uttered her name while dying.
SETTING
19th century, Congo region
concession companies set up by King Leopold II of Belgium who controlled the state and exploited its wealth to 'reduce primitive barbarianism and continue the development of civilisation in Africa'
CHARACTERS
Kurtz
progressive and liberal, wilderness captured him and took him beyond the limits of his heart until he went mad and died
Marlow
he didn't transgress his limits and fully understood his experience. The heart of darkness (the jungle) had not influence on him thanks to his ethic, self-knowledge and humility
THEMES
indictment of the brutal exercise of law on the natives and of the missionary zeal
imperialism driven by the search for profit
symbolised by Kurtz, with a German name, a half-French father and a half-English mother
a mythical journey in the search of the self
SYMBOLISM
parallels between the river Thames and the Congo river
light (initially associated with calm, peace, then to the negative aspects of colonialism: violence, hypocrisy, indifference) and dark (acquires positive connotations: the darkness of Africa, a noble environment)
TEXT
A slight clinking
FILM VERSIONS
Heart of darkness
(1993) by Nicolas Roeg, with John Malkovich and Tim Roth
inspired the film
Apocalypse Now
(1979) by Francis Ford Coppola
WORKS
1890
The Congo Diary
experience of the brutality of colonisation during a commission in Africa
feverish sickness and near mental breakdown
1897
The Nigger and the Narcissus
Preface: the writer's task
to record the complex pattern of life as he saw it and to explore the meaning of the human condition
1898
Youth
1900
Lord Jim
1902
Heart of darkness
inspired the film
Apocalypse Now
(1979) by Francis Ford Coppola
1904
Nostromo
gave the name to the spaceship in Ridley Scott's film
Alien
(1979)
1911
Under Western eyes
1907
The secret agent
1917
The shadow line
1915
To victory
1920
The Rescue
1923
The Rover
1910
The secret sharer
CHARACTERS
solitary figures
isolated to highlight their inner conflicts
viewed externally
rooted in no past, committed to an uncertain future
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES
oblique
(non-linear) style
time shifts to break the normal time sequence
first-person narration
several points of view to break the constraints of an omniscient narrator
invisible narrator
journals/letters
Many novels are told by the same narrator,
Marlow
LANGUAGE
Polish and French were his languages, but he wrote in
English
to express his complex vision of life
idiomatic dialogues (questions, interjections..)
huge variety of adjectives
complex syntax