Achebe Flashcards
seeking self and culture
“imagines that he needs a trip to Africa to encounter these things” - stagnant, old culture
terra nulls
“African history did not exist”- terra nullis
powerlessness
“bestowal of human expression to the one and withholding of it from the other”
racism (11)
“something more wilful”
“savage counterpart”
“bleeding heart sentiments”
“the black man lays a claim on the white man which is well-nigh intolerable”
“thorough-going racist”
“fixation on blackness”
“parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults”
“very humanity of black people is called into question”
“grossly inadequate”
“xenophobia”
“haze of distortions and cheap mystifications”
Conrad’s inability to perceive racism
“Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth”
contention of Achebe
“in western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest” - contention
civilisation comparison (2)
““the other world”, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilisation, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant beastiality”
“precariousness of its civilisation and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparison with Africa”
falling to id and jungle
“risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings.”
“Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognisable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind?”
“Keep away from Africa, or else! Mr Kurtz of ‘Heart of Darkness should have heeded that warning and the prowling horror in his heart would have kept its place, chained to its lair. But he foolishly exposed himself to the wild irresistible allure of the jungle and lo! The darkness found him out.”
setting
“merely a setting”
language style
“permanent literature”
“hypnotic stupor”
“trickery”
Conrad’s message and blurring
“he chose the role of purveyor of comforting myths”
“layers of insulation”
irony
“he neglects to hint however subtly or tentatively to an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters”
in place (3)
In place:
“for Conrad, things being in their place is of utmost importance”
“Europe leaving its safe stronghold between the policeman and the baker to like a peep into the heart of darkness”
“Conrad’s special brand of approval”
