sillywhy 's review for:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
Heart of Darkness unfolds as both a story and memory of English sailor, Marlow, about his journey to the Congo as the captain of a ship and his haunting encounter with the shadowy figure of Kurtz, who encapsulates the violence and delusion of the colonial enterprise. It both reflects upon and re-inscribes the horror and racism of European colonisation in Africa. The novella is striking in its flashes of illuminating insight into the dreams and nightmares of the West. Conrad's dehumanising depiction of the African people is confronting and intensely disturbing. This was my second read of the novella, after more than 13 years since my first. Some themes have emerged for me now that didn't then - speech vs writing; truth and lies; and the encounter with bodies (heads, particularly; one's own and of 'Others'). Its dreamlike quality, its deeply spectral atmosphere, the reversal/troubling (however problematic) of temporal and subject relations between 'civilisation' and the 'heart of darkness', and the vast body of memory studies/postcolonial literature discussing the work may warrant returning again to the book in future.
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