English Literature | Joseph Conrad and his masterpiece Heart of Darkness

Hi everybody, welcome back to our English literature lessons. So today we're going to talk about Conrad. So we know that Joseph Conrad was one of the major authors of English modernism. Actually he wasn't English, he was born in Ukraine during the period of the Russian dominance and his parents were Polish, so his name wasn't Joseph Conrad, the name was Polish. This is quite difficult actually, so you will forgive me if I try to read it and I hope that the pronunciation is as good as possible, but correct me if it is wrong. The name, the original, the Polish name is Józef Teodor Konrad Naleks Korzeniowski. I hope this is as correct as possible. Well, as I said before, his parents were Polish and they died when he was very young actually. Then he joined the French Merchant Navy and he lived for many years in Marseille. Then he changed and he joined the British Merchant Navy and that gave him the opportunity to travel a lot, especially to the Far East. And to know the culture, the atmospheres, the landscapes and all those places became also a setting for his works, obviously. Then he became a British subject actually and he spent most of his life in England writing until his death in 1924. Well, when we talk about his first novels especially, we can say that he especially talks about adventures in exotic places. This is quite normal because his life at sea gave him the chance to get that inspiration probably. We can mention many of his works but probably the most important one that gave him popularity was Chance. Well, anyway, he didn't talk about these adventures, these exotic places and landscapes in a romantic way, not at all. He talked about hostile and external forces against the protagonist, so sort of threatening forces, we can say so. The atmosphere is quite gloomy and creepy sometimes. Also in his masterpiece, Heart of Darkness, in which he talks actually about Africa and especially Congo. Also in this case, the landscape, nature in general is actually a threatening force that the protagonists have to face. They have to face all difficulties and one of the two protagonists, Merlot, has also to test his moral strength, his morality somehow because he has to fight on one side against wilderness, as we said before, this impenetrable nature. On the other side, he also has to fight against that curse that was cast over him by Curse, the other protagonist. The idea of darkness, which is also in the title, is very, very important and very symbolic. This is not just because we are talking about Africa, so it's a sort of a symbol of nature, impenetrable nature, etc. But it is also a metaphor of the human being, the human unconscious side, the human psyche and the human heart too. So, talking about topics and interpretations about this work, we can say that one topic is obviously nature. Second important topic is the denounce of colonialism, especially British colonialism in this case. In fact, Curse, the other protagonist, at first he represents this sort of god-like power of colonists that actually try to exploit the environment, exploit people, try to exploit landscapes and to act like god and to impose their own patterns on society. And we can say that it is strongly criticized, especially because it seems to lead always to greed, to greed of power. This is quite important. And then there is a third interpretation, we can say. So, it's a psychoanalytic interpretation, actually, so sort of a psychoanalytic perspective. Well, we can say that the whole plot, the whole work is a journey, a journey into the unconsciousness of the human being. We know that modernism was the period of the so-called decay or decadentismo in Italy or decadence in Germany, which means the decay of past values, standard values, patterns, we can say, those certainties that are now shattered. And so there is a sort of a disorientation and a sort of a new research. And this new research is focusing on the individual. This is why also in literature there's a shift from the external plot, so events outside, to the internal plot. So events inside the individual, so inside the character. And there is a completely disrogation of the traditional plot and traditional syntax, new techniques like stream of consciousness, for example, or interior monologues or free association and so on and so on. So, in this case, sorry, this is quite, quite modern because this is a real journey into the unconsciousness, so the unconscious side of the individual. So if Africa is savage and it is under the control, under control of morals, this is quite important, and Europe outside, which tries to tame that unconscious side of the individual, which is Africa, is actually seen as a tyrant. Now, Kurtz, who is the second protagonist, you remember I mentioned Merlot before, Kurtz is the other one, at the end of the novel is actually the shade of himself. He has been completely absorbed by, we can say, the diabolic love and the so-called unearthly hate that belonged to the place there. So the mysteries he has penetrated, or at least he has somehow perceived, have taken his soul away. So the narrator doesn't actually reveal what these passions, these mysteries, these monstrous passions are. He just ends up at the end of the work with the desperate cry of the protagonist, which is the horror, the horror. But we never know, we don't have a description of that horror. The horror is suggested, we can imagine that monstrous passion, we can imagine that sort of a devilish force or threat, but we can't actually get a description of that. This is quite interesting, this is quite important, because this is quite recurring in literature. So the attempt at showing evil without actually showing, describing evil, because at the moment we describe it, we take some power away from that evil. This is the topic of my next video. So if you're interested in this, we will create connections between Heart of Darkness and Orwell and Tolkien with the Lord of the Rings and Rowling with Harry Potter. So there are many, many, many ways to represent evil without actually describing evil, for a specific reason, because describing that evil would actually take its power away from it. Now, anyway, the landscape helps, as I said before, to create the whole atmosphere and give us the impression to touch that evil anyway. And as I said before, the landscape is also the representation, the symbol of this terrible unknown psyche, psyche of a human being, obviously, and it is completely impenetrable. He uses personification, personification of nature, to give us that impression, to give us this important impression. And he also uses a very figurative language. We have to remember that English was the third, for Cormac the third, his third language, because his mother tongue was Polish and then French. English was his third language. And despite it, he was so rich, rich in vocabulary, rich in imagery, rich in the sensuous details, which are very important to create suggestions while describing and while suggesting atmospheres too. His narrative techniques actually belong, there are some traditional aspects and there are also some very new innovative aspects that actually belong to modernism, as I said before. He was absolutely influenced, for example, by Harry James, as far as the description of characters was concerned. But on the other side, he uses a very, very new technique. So the narrator is a first person narrator, but pay attention, there are two protagonists, so two narrators, both first person singular. This is quite strange. It gives us two different advantages. On one side, it represents the subjectivity of the narrator. Obviously, we are involved in the plot and this is an interior plot. We can actually see his mind, his heart, his feelings and so on and so on. But on the other side, since we have two different points of view, we also have some kind of detachment and a more objective way to describe and sort of a distance. And that distance allows us to see more, to see different perspectives of the same aspects, of the same object. So I think this is all for the moment, but I wait for you in my next video, in which actually we talk about the representation of evil. We mentioned actually Conrad and Heart of Darkness and we can make a comparison between evil and representation of evil in literature on one side and a sort of a black hole on the other side. We talk a lot of black holes in these days because of the new photographs of the black hole. Well, representing, describing evil in literature is like, we can say, taking a picture of a black hole. So we'll see that in our next video. So if you have found this video about Conrad interesting, just please like this video or share it if you want, if you can, if you like. Just subscribe to my channel. As I always say, the more we are, the better we can work together. And thank you so much, as usual, for your attention, for watching and for your support every day. Thank you so, so very much. Goodbye!