Reading Report
Name:张婧
Class One
Heart of Darkness, written by the famouse English novelist Joseph Conrad, is hailed as one of the best short novels in the English history of literature. Known as the United Kingdom, one of eight writers Joseph Conrad (JosephConrad, 1857-1924) in our school community is not too great, especially the young students do not even know his name. This is compared to his literary reputation is very incompatible with, the famous American writer HL Mencken that he was the greatest novelist. China famous writer Lao She also called him "the modern state with the greatest creator of character." He had four works selected for the United States, "Random House," the Top 100 major English novels of this century. "Heart of Darkness" is Conrad's most prestigious works of literary critics in the West enjoyed a high status. The most distinguished literary critic FR Lewis called "Heart of Darkness" is in English since ancient times created the best one of several novella.
It is deep in its implication, complexity, unique in the world literature, in 1899, "Heart of Darkness" for the first time in the form of serialized magazine published in London's famous "Bulaiwode" on, since its inception, to this thin commentary of the novella's hundreds of times the capacity of the work itself. And the most striking thing is the different critics can interpret them in different ways and come to different and even opposite conclusions.
Enumerated on the "dark heart" of the comments, we can see some critics to focus on its impressionist writing style and frame narrative structure, and some prefer the myth of its implication, and later it appeared in Freud's faction Deconstruction, Jameson made his Marxist political commentary, in recent years, there are in people's vision of feminist criticism, racism, criticism, new historicism criticism, critics were divided and debated.
It described a sailer’s journey which full of danger and adventures, but in a special way I appreciat a lot.
That is, Conrad told the story and expressed his deep thought borrowing the tongue of another person, Marlow. The author didn’t start it like general novels by the first person but adopted the third person, which draws our attention stongly on it. The whole novel, as a matter of fact is the words Marlow said in a night on a deck not a dialogue. To a certain degree I am a little tired of it when reading the later part. Because I think the form of writing is too monotonous. How can the words of a night one says be writen into a book?But later I realize that it is the charm of this book.
Of course, it also involved anther’s words though the number of them was very small. However, in my opinion, but for the short words, the plots would have difficulty to develop and spread even if there was more abstracted stories and contents.
But a article or a novel lack of contents will be the most serious failure. Conrad did very well in either the senery describing or concrete things.
It started with the view of the combine of sea and a river. “ The sea- beach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing of the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished spirit. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanshing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, the farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the grestest, town on the earth.” This is my favourate paragraph. When reading it, I seem to be standing by the sea and overlooking the distance. So it makes people have the feeling of being personly on the scene. In my opinoin, such fasinating scenery descring should be credited to his rich experience of journel to Africa. Thus the experience of a person is also very important. Of course, the kind of scenery describing about the forest, rivers, and mountains and so on also be presented in the rest of this novel. What’ s important, the author used different words to discribe them every time.
All the scenery describing filled up with the author’s strong feeling and thought that he wanted to convey.
The journey of Marlow to Africa is the major body to express the Conrad’s opinion that he objected to colonialism.
Marlow, a sailor in a English trade company, performed the task to Africa. In the journey filled with unknowns, he witnessed the vilont governing of the white to the black with his own eyes. And he showed his resentment to the behabivors, which was just what the author wanted to express.
In Marlow had just set foot on the African continent, we can find a seamless combination of black and the environment. "They were shouting, singing, they toil - they have the bones, there are bones, there are wild angry, there is a strong motor activity. These are like the waves along the coast as a natural and true. They do not excuse to be there, watching them is the a great comfort. "while the whites and the environment is the product of uncoordinated, one by one listlessness, with artillery attacks blindly facing the jungle, in the Marlow seems to be" of such practices, there is a mental disorder the composition, painting scene, there is a sad joke it is to do the taste. "novels black African jungle and living in Africa in which blacks in the eyes of the Europeans at the time meant that the original and brutal. Ironically, however, is that these sow the "civilized" white people in Africa, the dawn of each other infighting, mutual slander, mutual hatred, just to be able to "be appointed to an ivory trade points can be got to go." A symbol of Western civilization, the tracks just "a pile of rotting machine parts." In the original world, the involvement of civilization seemed embarrassed, panic, absurd and laughable.
“ They are building a railway. The cliff was not the way or nothing; but this objectless blasting was all the working going on.” Now that doing this thing is useless, why did the white still forced the black, their slaves, to go on? I think that is determined by the aggression and expansion of the Europeans in that time. The author described the smile of the white as hooligan’s smile. It can be seen from that Conrad hated these behaviors very much.
“ Black shaped crouded, lay, sat between the trees learning against the trunks, cling to the earth, half coming out, half effaced within the dim light, in all the attitude of pain, abandonment, and despare. The work was going on. The work! And this was the place where some of the helpers had withdrawn to die.” Even the author called the black bones. You can imagine that how large the pains the black was suffering were.
Such describings in the novel are too numerous to mention individuly. But the title of this novel can best speak for that.
“ The high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there was shiney patches on the black creek.” “ The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to the bar the way for out return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” “ The steamer toiled along with slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible frenzy.” All mentioned above echo the title. Darkness is full of mystery and unknowns. However, the European settlers ignored the danger in order to chase the profits and destroyed life of Africans. Though the Europeans brought them the advanced technology and skills, the disaster the settlers caused was also inestimable.
In the "Heart of Darkness", the Kurtz is undoubtedly the representative of Western civilization. From the life experience and professional perspective, Kurtz is a symbol of the whole of Europe, his mother is half British, his father is half French, can be said that all Europe was committed to the growth of Kurtz. He is a painter, poet, musician, orator, Kurz, these can be the product of European politics and culture, which illustrates him as a symbol of the meaning of Western civilization. His jungle in Africa has degenerated into a savage. Kurtz's fall shows the results of civilization, the face of barbarism temptation - the complete deformation of European civilization in Africa. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, civilization, this represents "a never-ending will to victory. This victory could disperse the darkness," but "civilization may also be brutal, and he is a valuable achievement, worthy of human care of care, but also a hypocritical excuse. "colonialist mechanical worship civilization, and to them as beliefs and values, while ignoring the human and moral improvement, but did not realize the development of science, if used for evil purposes inherent in human nature can only be indulgent to the evil tendencies, such a civilization is the same as ignorance, barbarism and darkness. Nazhi night stand around and trade haunt hippopotamus is the incarnation of brutal colonialists even empty bullet hit it half a Haomao Lossless, advanced weapons from Europe unwanted symbol of civilization on the original impact is useless . If the worship of God on the matter is characterized by barbarians, then the civilized pursuit of ivory have Heyi do? Civilization and barbarism are the same in nature, and civilization is superficial, and it relies on legal and ethical to maintain, but once a civilized people out of these situations, he is no different with a savage, or even reverse, library Schultz is a vivid example. Is far from civilization, we believe that a stable and lasting.
Conrad's view of civilization and barbarism also reflected in the two women who Kurtz. We are both from his description of the woman's appearance can be seen, Conrad describes Kurtz that a black mistress, "she is full of wild, but the shiny, his eyes staring eyes, moving extremely - she was standing there quietly watching us, like barbaric in itself. "and Kurtz's fiancée," she came forward, a black, pale in the darkness of dusk approached to me floating in the air - the room seems to have become more dark, good Like that clouded the evening where all the sad light all came to hide in her forehead. "Conrad and give the praise of black women, yes, is respect, praise is her beauty, her straightforward, she the brave, her fearlessness and her exuberant vitality; he gave his sympathy for women in Europe is that it is sad, sympathetic is her misfortune, sad love her pale, weak and hypocritical. African women is that makes people feel sad in full bloom in the vitality of European women is that makes people feel sad and evening together lethargy adulterated. Conrad's view of these two women was a metaphor for his savage and civilized view: savage is a natural, dynamic, and real; and civilized pale, pretentious, and hypocritical.
In this paper, the socio-political point of view put forward the views of the author. In the field of socio-political criticism, many critics that "Heart of Darkness" is essentially a reflection of conflict between civilization and the original novel. Jacque Berthoud that the novel is about the nature of civilization inquiries. The vast majority of commentators believe that modern civilization, Conrad conducted a ruthless expose and castigate. However, I believe Conrad in "Heart of Darkness" is contradictory, he was caught in a dilemma situation, his sharp eyes, extraordinary insight to the diagnosis of diseases of modern civilization, but it can not be prescribed.
More than a century after its publication（1899）,Heart of Darkness remains an indisputably classic text and argualy Conrad's finest work.This Notron Critical Edition is again based on Robert Kimbrough's meticulously re-edited text of the novel.An expanded Textual Appendix alows the reder to follow Conrad's revisions at different stages of the creative process.A Chronology has been added,and the Selected Bibli-ography has been revised and updated.