Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s novella in which Marlow recalls a journey into the colonial Congo and his encounter with the ivory trader Kurtz. The account exposes a profound gap between the language of civilization and the exploitation it is used to justify. Marlow’s recollections reach listeners through another narrator, placing uncertainty and the limits of testimony within the structure of the work. Images of darkness, speech, and silence recur throughout the journey. The restricted perspectives of the narrators also shape how Africa and its people appear within this account of European imperial power.