殖民社會的融合:對位法閱讀康拉德的《黑暗之心》

Abstract

Abstract My thesis is a rereading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness based on the dialectic model of contrapuntal reading proposed by Edward Said. In the process of contrapuntal reading, the reader is expected to deal with the canonical texts involved with colonial issues from the different perspectives of the colonizers and colonized. Accordingly, in my rereading of the novella, I shall proceed from the dominant perspective of the colonizer to its antithesis in the marginalized perspective of the resistant colonized figure, and finally to a synthesis that attempts to integrate their perspectives. My central argument is to demonstrate how Marlow’s dominant narrative of his colonial experience discloses the duplicity and inequity of European colonization in Central Africa (thesis) and how Marlow’s native helmsman displays his resistance to colonial rule and thus transforms the unequal power relations of colonialism (antithesis). Finally I shall concentrate on the racial integration and mutual recognition between the colonizers and colonized through their contesting yet intertwined experiences of colonialism (synthesis). On the whole, I want to convey two agendas in my thesis – human agency and interracial brotherhood. The affirmation of human agency to confront the adversity of external situations is displayed by the three figures in the novella – Marlow, the native helmsman, and Kurtz – with their development into mature humanity through the harrowing experiences of colonial enterprise. The prospects of brotherhood are realized by the integration between Marlow and his native crews and between Kurtz and his native disciples. The racial integration between the colonizers and colonized must be based on their mutual acceptance of racial and cultural differences and their recognition of the common humanity between Africans and Europeans. With their mutual recognition and reciprocal services, then it is possible to attain the status of racial harmony in the colonial society.