Acta Universitatis Danubius. Communicatio, Vol 6, No 1 (2012)

Abstract

Abstract

The present academic research aims at revealing conflicting political ideologies which underlie the narrative of the aforementioned short story, a literary work written by Joseph Conrad, a Polish born writer and a British citizen, who denounced politics as a preposterous human activity. The narrative evinces the imperial enterprise set in action in the Belgian Congo colony at the end of the 19^th century, a period where race for colonial acquisitions was ensued between great imperial powers of Europe, Asia, and North America. Moreover, the central character functions as a symbol of the shattered individual between two distinctive worlds, a viewpoint which illuminates him on the actual truth behind the humanitarian ideals defended by great powers of Europe, Belgium in the present case. The civilized individual undergoes a process of self-denial of the natural side of personality, a primitive and dark one which is a current feature of the native: Marlow, the protagonist, experiences confusion and despair in the process of self-recognition: the process is complete when Marlow encounters Kurtz a grandiloquent agent of imperialism who has become a native concerning his own demanour throughout the novella. Furthermore, the novella intimates on the actual undertaking to exploit the non-European, not to endeavor to the moral mission to illuminate the native.

Consequently, imperialism is expounded as an exploiting system where each and every agent fulfills one’s own role for the sake of material interests, the vital element of social interaction as Marx proposes. We witness a capitalist market going on in Congo where the great financiers export the means of production from Europe to Congo, the native is used as the prime force of labour, and the agents of imperialism instruct the non-Europeans to fit the system. Joseph Conrad illustrates the Belgian enterprise in Congo as another episode in the greater historical scheme of human exploitation.