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

 

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Page 59
... women char- acters reinforces the hierarchical dichotomies of Man / Woman , White / Black , and Civilized / Bestial . If only things were so simple . THE ' WILD AND GORGEOUS ' AFRICAN WOMAN Soon after arriving at the Inner Station ...
Page 67
... woman reader of this novella , rightly observing that ' although [ Marlow ] speaks about women , there is no indication that women might be included among his hearers ' [ p . 124 ] . However , far from vindicating the exclusion of women ...
Page 68
... women I mean – are out of it - should be out of it . We must help them stay in that beautiful world of their own , lest ours gets worse ' ( p . 80 ) , and even further back to : ' It's queer how out of touch with truth women are ' ( p ...

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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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