Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism | Racism in Literature - Chinua Achebe (essay date 1977)

Chinua Achebe (essay date 1977)

SOURCE: Achebe, Chinua. “Conrad's Racism.” In Readings on “Heart on Darkness,” edited by Clarice Swisher, pp. 184-94. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999.

[In the following excerpt from an essay originally published in 1977, Achebe argues that in Heart of Darkness Conrad characterizes Africans in a way that dehumanizes them and sets up a contrast between civilized England and uncivilized Africa.]

Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where a man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality. The book opens on the River Thames, tranquil, resting peacefully “at the decline of day after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks.” But the actual story takes place on the River Congo, the very antithesis of the Thames. The...

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