Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

The casebook assembles historical and theoretical materials relevant to a deeper understanding of the origins and reception of Joseph Conrad's best-known and most controversial work, with texts by Conrad himself, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Max Beerbohm, and distinguished scholars such as Zdzislaw Najder and Ian Watt. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's fictional account of a journey up the Congo river in 1890, raises important questions about colonialism and narrative theory. This casebook contains materials relevant to a deeper understanding of the origins and reception of this controversial text, including Conrad's own story 'An Outpost of Progress', together with a little-known memoir by one of Conrad's oldest English friends, a brief history of the Congo Free State by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a parody of Conrad by Max Beerbohm. A wide range of theoretical approaches are also represented, examining Conrad's text in terms of cultural, historical, textual, stylistic, narratological, post-colonial, feminist, and reader-response criticism. The volume concludes with an interview in which Conrad compares his adventures on the Congo with Mark Twain's experiences as a Mississippi pilot.