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Achebe’s weakest link: an analysis

Publication date: 14.01.2013

Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2012, Vol. VII, pp. 159 - 165

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843941YC.12.008.0697

Authors

Aaron Records
Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main St, New London, NH 03257, United States
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Titles

Achebe’s weakest link: an analysis

Abstract

Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, states in an interview that Joseph Conrad ensconces racism in his adjective-ridden writing style. More than that, Achebe even states that Conrad intentionally tries to confuse his readers so that they do not detect his racism. Arguments of intention are dangerous, especially when the author that is subjected to one is deceased. They cannot defend themselves. In order to see if Achebe’s claim of hidden racism in Heart of Darkness is true or not, I have read two other works by Conrad, The Secret Sharer and The Shadow Line: A Confession, and compared their writing. Using more analyses of Conrad’s works, I discover that Conrad is not too confusing for his readers; most people understand him. However, I notice that Heart of Darkness is written in a more confusing style. Adding Conrad’s philosophy and reviewing it with Nietzsche’s philosophy, we see that Conrad doesn’t seem like someone who would try to be racist and then hide it. The argument of intention would also seem to have an air of arrogance, as it appears Achebe thinks other readers are unable to comprehend Conrad’s text the way he can, or at least without his guidance. In conclusion, I surmise that arguments of intention are dangerous and that no one should make them because they are largely insupportable. If anything, an argument of intention has all the qualities of prejudice and once investigated, seems just as absurd as arguments for racism.

References

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Achebe, Chinua. “Chinua Achebe on Conrad’s Image of Africa”. [In:] Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Bloom’s

Literary Criticism – Infobase Publishing, 2009, pp. 73–80.

Burns, Allan. “The Opening of The Shadow-Line.” English Studies 1999, 80.6, pp. 518–526.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1977.

Conrad, Joseph. The Shadow Line: A Confession. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1921.

Huneker, James. “The Genius of Joseph Conrad.” The North American Review 1914, vol. 200, № 705 (August), pp. 270–279.

Larabee, Mark D. “‘A Mysterious System’: Topographical Fidelity and the Charting of Imperialism in Joseph Conrad’s Siamese Waters.” Studies in The Novel 2000, 32.3, pp. 348–368.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Transl. Walter Arnold Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1989, pp. 91, 94, 145–149.

Phillips, Caryl and Achebe, Chinua. “Was Joseph Conrad Really A Racist?”. Philosophia Africana 2007, 10.1, pp. 59–66.

Ryf, Robert S. “Joseph Conrad.” Essay 49 of Columbia Essays on Modern Writers. Ed. William York Tindall. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

Information

Information: Yearbook of Conrad Studies, 2012, Vol. VII, pp. 159 - 165

Article type: Original article

Authors

Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main St, New London, NH 03257, United States

Published at: 14.01.2013

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Aaron Records (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

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Number of downloads: 6076

<p>Achebe’s weakest link: an analysis</p>