IMPERIALIST IDEOLOGY AND ITS COUNTERPOINT IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS ANDREI NAE * Abstract The present paper attempts to place Joseph Conrad’s canonical work, “Heart of Darkness”, in the context of its contemporary ideological debate concerning imperialism. The novel overtly manifests a sceptical attitude with respect to any practice of imperialism, as conceived either by corporate capitalism based on racialist thinking, or egalitarian socialism based on humanism. Contrary to the scepticism pervading the novel, both Marlow’s deeds and the representations of African otherness seem to work against the overt refutation of imperialism. Marlow is an employee of an imperialist company throughout most of the novel, while the images of native Africans fall back on dominant negative stereotypes. As a result, even if judged on its own terms, or according to present-day rhetorical sensitivities, “Heart of Darkness” itself seems unable to live up to its anti-imperialist intentions. Keywords: imperialism, capitalism, socialism, racialism, humanism, instrumentalism, subalternity. Published at the turn of the century, “Heart of Darkness” is a novella that is marked by a loss of faith in the Victorian civilizing mission. Unlike the abundance of adventure travel writings that trumpeted national pride and that openly supported British imperialism, Conrad’s novella offered its contemporaries a more or less bleak, yet at the same time down-to-earth view of the effects of imperialism and showed that the darkness of Africa that horrified any decent enlightened Westerner may very well be a western product. 1 Nevertheless, while certainly disapproving of many imperialist practices, Marlow does not thoroughly oppose imperialism, as will be shown in the upcoming paragraphs. * University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Doctoral School of Cultural and Literary Studies, andrei.nae@lls.unibuc.ro. 1 I am by no means implying that Conrad anticipates later post-derridean notions of rhetorical constructions of subalterity. I am merely hinting at ravages caused by the civilizing mission as they are described throughout the novel.