Joseph Conrad’s Africa An Analysis of Representation in Heart of Darkness

Abstract

A study on the representation of Africa in the Western world, from 1900 to the 21st Century. In this study Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is used as an example of Western representation of Africa as a continent and its inhabitants. The representation is then compared to P.F. Thomése's De Onderwaterzwemmer, A contemporary Dutch novel. The theoretical foundation is laid by Said's ideas of representation in Orientalism and Mazrui's Africanity.