Representations of Africa in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
The representation of Africa in nineteenth-century literature by Western authors was predominantly characterized by negative stereotypes, portraying the continent as the "Dark Continent," shrouded in savagery and chaos. These depictions, as analyzed by Patrick Brantlinger, contributed to the myth of Africa as devoid of civilization and in need of Western intervention. Early explorers and writers, such as Sir Richard Burton and David Livingstone, often described Africans as childlike and savage, reinforcing race and class divisions, a perspective critiqued by Victor Kiernan. These narratives supported the colonialist notion of the "White man's burden," justifying European domination.
Despite the abolition of the slave trade, the ensuing exploration brought about more complex, yet still patronizing portrayals. Renowned figures like David Livingstone, while more sympathetic, still perceived themselves as superior, a perspective shared by many of their contemporaries. These explorers' accounts often romanticized their own hardships while depicting Africa as merely a backdrop. Women travelers, such as Mary Kingsley, also contributed to this narrative, with critiques from Laura E. Ciolkowski and Cheryl McEwan highlighting the gendered and often complex representations of the African landscape.
In fiction, works like Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness became emblematic of these Western perceptions, critiqued by Chinua Achebe for their inherent racism and dehumanization of Africans. Achebe's criticism, as discussed in his influential essay, opened the door for further scholarly examination of how Africa was depicted as the "Other." Feminist critics have since debated whether female travelers offered more empathetic portrayals, with scholars like Lindy Stiebel and Bruce Mazlish exploring these dynamics.
Edward Wilmot Blyden, an African writer, provided a rare counter-narrative, analyzing African political and cultural issues, as discussed by V. Y. Mudimbe. Despite this, Western portrayals have persisted, influencing modern perceptions of Africa as a place requiring Western intervention, a viewpoint echoed in critiques of contemporary media and literature. These portrayals continue to affect how Africa is viewed today, reinforcing outdated stereotypes and narratives of dependency.
Contents
- Representative Works
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The Genealogy of the Myth of the ‘Dark Continent.’
(summary)
In the following essay, Brantlinger traces the evolution of the myth of Africa as the Dark Continent in writings by British and American explorers, sociologists, anthropologists, missionaries, journalists, abolitionists, novelists, and poets in the nineteenth century.
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Criticism: Northeast And Central Africa
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Africa
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In the following excerpt from an essay first published in 1969, Kiernan discusses the views of noted nineteenth-century explorers who traveled to East Africa, including Sir Richard Burton, E. S. Grogan, David Livingstone, and John Speke, showing how these travelers imposed class and race divisions upon Africans; considered them to be childlike, savage, and lazy; and saw them as deserving of and needing Europeans to govern them.
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In Darkest England and the Way Out: Imagining Empire, Imagining Britain
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In the following essay, Donovan discusses the English reception of Henry Morton Stanley's In Darkest Africa in 1890; examines the exposé of poverty in Britain that it inspired, William Thomas Stead's In Darkest England; and argues that the imperialist ideology was a result of the experiences, conflicts, and contradictions of capitalist Britain.
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Africa
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Criticism: South Africa
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The Vacant Land: The Mythology of British Expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
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In the following excerpt, Crais explores the genealogy of the dominant political and historical myth posited by Whites in South Africa that the land they settled was empty and that Blacks had no prior claim to the spaces that were colonized, a myth that forged also the negative image of the African as Other.
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A Triptych: Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, Rider Haggard's She, and Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race
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In the following essay, Mazlish examines the influence of H. Rider Haggard's novel She on Sigmund Freud and the influence of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Coming Race on Haggard before discussing how the three men understood ideas about race, gender, and imperialism in order to show how Africa was commonly used in nineteenth-century discourse as a symbol of the repressed consciousness.
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‘As Europe is to Africa, So is Man to Woman’: Gendering Landscape in Rider Haggard's Nada the Lily
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In the following essay, Stiebel argues that in his fiction H. Rider Haggard sexualizes and feminizes the African landscape.
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The Vacant Land: The Mythology of British Expansion in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
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Criticism: West Africa
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An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness
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In the following essay, originally published in the winter issue of the Massachusetts Review in 1977, Achebe asserts that Joseph Conrad was a racist and that his novel Heart of Darkness celebrates the dehumanization of Africans. Achebe also notes that white critics have not commented on this type of racism, which, he asserts, was and is the dominant perception of Africa in the Western imagination.
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E. W. Blyden's Legacy and Questions
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In the following excerpt, Mudimbe considers the claim that the West Indian writer and thinker Edward Wilmot Blyden, who settled in West Africa in 1851, was the precursor of Négritude, and analyzes Blyden's ideas on colonization, Western ideology, European attitudes toward Blacks, Islam, Pan-Africanism, and the condition and character of Africans.
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Gender, Race, and Colonial Discourse in the Travel Writings of Mary Kingsley
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In the following essay, Nnoromele examines the travel writings of Mary Kingsley to counter the claim made by white feminist scholars that white female travelers in the nineteenth century responded to colonized Others with reciprocity, did not objectify them, treated them with empathy, and lacked many of the imperialist attitudes of their male contemporaries.
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Traveler's Tales: Empire, Victorian Travel, and the Spectacle of English Womanhood in Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa.
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In the following excerpt, Ciolkowski argues that far from undercutting bourgeois womanhood and presenting a story of female liberation, Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa establishes the author's gendered identity.
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Paradise or Pandemonium?
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In the following essay, McEwan analyzes the response of British female travel writers to the West African landscape, arguing that while their descriptions of the physical environment were complex and varied, they generally saw the natural environment as ordered and not chaotic and resisted the urge to establish control over the land they depicted.
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An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness
(summary)
- Further Reading