Name: Deepika Vaja

Paper : The African literature

Topic: Representation of Africa in Heart of Darkness & Things Fall apart. Enrollment no: PG14101031.

Year & class: 2014-16 & M.A -2

Roll no:04

deepikavaja3733@gmail.com Dept. of English

M. K. Bhavnagar University.

REPRESENTATION OF AFRICA IN ‘HEART OF DARKNESS’ & ‘THINGS

FALL APART’.

INDEX

• Introduction• Characters • Main Issues in Both Novels• Both Novel in African Soci

ety• Representation of women• Represented African societ

y• Conclusion

Things Fall apartINTRODUCTION

Heart of Darkness• 1899• Joseph Conrad• White man journey in Africa,

Story follows white man• Marlow is narrator of the story • Imperialism is at the center of

the novel • Story focused on the Marlow &

Kurtz characters • The Hollowness of Civilization &

imperialism.• Image of mid 19th century

Africa• Africans as “Savages”• Presented as Dark image of

Africa

• 1958• Chinua Achebe• Black man journey in Africa• Modern African novel in English• Okonkwo is narrator • Story takes place in Africa during

the time of Colonialism• Story focused on the character

Okonkwo• His experience in colonization

Africa• Image of mid 20th century

Africa• Igbo Culture • Presented the real picture of Africa

Heart of DarknessThings Fall apart

CHARACTERS

Things Fall apart Heart of Darkness

oOkonkwooUnokaoNwoyeoEzinmaoEkwefioIkemefunaoMr. BrownoReverend James Smi

oMarlow oKurtz oThe Manager oThe Brick makeroAuntoThe HarlequinoThe Intended

• The Hypocrisy of Imperialism

• Madness as a Result of imperialism

• The Absurdity of Evil• Power, Exploration &

identity• Fate and fear will• Women & Femininity • Dehumanization &

Racism• Good vs. Evil

• Balance of traditional masculine and feminine values

• Continual and inevitable change

• The dynamic between the individual and society

• Irony (situational)• Conformity vs. individuality • Tradition vs. Modernity • Action vs. Inaction • Power, Knowledge,

Education and Religion

MAIN ISSUES IN BOTH NOVEL

Things Fall apart Heart of Darkness

The Things Fall Apart

Heart Of Darkness.

BOTH NOVEL IN AFRICAN SOCIETYThings Fall apart Heart of Darkness

• Art of conversation, structured and civilized society. (Social norms, Social structures).

• Title of the novel comes from a line in W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming"

• First person narration (Okonkwo). Good, lightness in the village.

• Blackman point of view and Igbo culture as important

• Achebe claims that the image of Africa which is portrayed in Heart of Darkness is not because of African people’s lack of awareness and knowledge but it’s a result of colonialism.

• First person narration (Marlow). • White man Point of view and

effect of imperialism. • Darkness & Cruelty

• Okonkwo’s story – as well as the distinctions between “motherland” and “fatherland” and “matriarchal” vs. “patriarchal” perspectives in the text.

• Marlow story has only for self center and cravity for “fatherland”.

• The main purpose of colonial system and rulings to Native land people. It was strictly follows to Africans people. It is domain of those people have exotics and they are in the domination and exploitation of the continent their culture.

• Colonial was educated for subordination, exploitation, the creation of mental confusion and the development of underdevelopment in Africa.

Things Fall Apart Heart Of Darkn

ess

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

Things Fall apart Heart of Darkness“When the British came to Ibo land, for instance, at the beginning of the 20th century, and defeated the men in pitched battles in different places, and set up their administrations, the men surrendered. And it was the women who led the first revolt” .

(Nwoye, Ezinma, Ekwefi)

-Chinua Achebe

“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men”.

(Aunt, Kurtz’s girl friend ) -Joseph Conrad

• What is ironic about Okonkwo’s feelings for Ikemefuna, compared to his feelings for Nwoye? – Okonkwo.

• Aunt and The Intended often conflict to him assumption that women are naive and idealistic. Women are the beneficiaries of much of resulting wealth and they become objects upon which men can display thier own success and status. – Marlow.

• Marlow told to Kurtz last words was : Horror ! Horror ! Horror !.

REPRESENTED AFRICAN SOCIETY• “Africa as “Other world”• Accuses Joseph Conrad of being

"a thorough going racist" for depicting Africa as "the other world”.

• “Antithesis of Europe and there of civilization”(Considered as racist)

• African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans.

• Edward Said says that “Heart of Darkness works so effectively because its politics and aesthetics are, so to speak, imperialist, which in the closing years of the nineteenth century seemed to be at the same time an aesthetic, politics and even epistemology inevitable an unavoidable”

• The idea of “OTHER” and “US”

CONCLUSION

• “Their existence & exoticism enable his self contemplation. This kind of Dehumanization is harder to identify than colonial violence or open racism. While Heart of Darkness offers a powerful condemnation of the hypocritical operation of imperialism, it also presents a set of issues surrounding race that is ultimately troubling”- Joseph Conrad

• “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”- Chinua Achebe.

WORKS CITED

• Achebe., Chinua. Things fall apart. Nigerian, 1985.

• Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1899.

• Wikipedia. 12 January 2016 <http://www.Edward said-wikipedia.com>.

Thank you…