Heart of Darkness: Character Studies

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, 2008 M05 27 - 110 pages

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) is one of the most important literary works of the early twentieth century. It has provoked much critical debate, on issues such as fin de siècle doubt and pessimism, European colonialism, racism, and misogyny. Engaging with the novel's characters is crucial to understanding its complexity and its criticalhistory.

This study includes: an overview of the novel, including an account of its late nineteenth-century context discussions of the narrative structure and the narrators; - chapters analyzing in detail the key characters in relation to the text's themes, issues and historical context; engagement with a range of literary criticism and theory; a conclusion reminding students of the potential of detailed character analysis and close critical reading; a guide to secondary texts and a comprehensive bibliography.

From inside the book

 

Results 1-3 of 36

Page vii
... reading and evidence - based discussion , as well as an engagement with historical context , and with literary criticism and theory . Character Studies was prompted by a general concern in liter- ature departments about students ...
Page 72
... reading of the primary text . I challenge what Chinua Achebe says about Conrad , for example , because I think his interpretation of the novel is incorrect , and I use the novel to reveal why . Elaboration is , again , the key . When ...
Page 97
... Reading for the Plot : Design and Intention in Narrative . Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press . Burden , Robert ( 1991 ) , Heart of Darkness . Basingstoke : Macmillan . Carabine , Keith ( ed . ) ( 1992 ) , Joseph Conrad ...

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Contents

On the Nellie
7
Before the Congo
21
On the Congo
31
Copyright

6 other sections not shown

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Ashley Chantler
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Ashley Chantler
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Common terms and phrases

accountant adjectival insistence African woman argues asserts Basingstoke Berthoud Blackwood's Magazine Brantlinger 1988 brooding motionless Brussels Cambridge University Press cannibals Cedric Watts Central Station Chapter characters Chinua Achebe colonial Company's Congo Conrad's Heart delayed decoding dichotomies discussion European example F. R. Leavis Feder's Fiction Ford Madox Ford Madox Ford Frankenstein Fresleven grove of death Hawthorn Heart of Darkness helmsman horror Ian Watt idea ignorant imperialism impressionism Inner Station Intended interpretation Joseph Conrad Kurtz language Leavis light looked Macmillan madness Marlow Marlow's audience Marlow's narrative Marlow's story meaning mournful gloom narrator's Nellie Nigger nineteenth-century Norton novel Oxford University Press passage Penguin perhaps possible primary narrator reader reading reprinted in Conrad response river rivet Robert Hampson Robert Kimbrough savage scene Secret Sharing seems soul statement suggests tells things Thomas Dilworth truth understand University of Chester unspeakable rites women word writing York and London Youth

About the author (2008)

Ashley Chantler is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Chester, UK.

Bibliographic information

TitleHeart of Darkness: Character Studies
Character Studies
Continuum character studies
AuthorAshley Chantler
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2008
Original fromthe University of Michigan
Digitized15 Jul 2008
ISBN0826481744, 9780826481740
Length110 pages
  
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