Imperial Ideology and Narrative Complicity in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness: A Postcolonial Stylistic Reading
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1606.26Keywords:
imperial ideology, power politics, narrative complicity, postcolonial stylistics, marginalized AfricansAbstract
This research examines how imperial and ideological power is stylistically recorded in Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness (2007) using a postcolonial stylistic framework. The study explores Conrad’s critique of empire while simultaneously revealing his inability to escape the confines of imperial ideology. The African characters are not portrayed as fully human, as they remain in the perpetual darkness. The narrative marginalizes Africans by allowing only one European to speak on their behalf. The integration of postcolonial theory and stylistics works to critically interpret the role of language in literature for reflecting, reinforcing, or resisting imperialist ideologies. The research demonstrates how imperialist attitudes are imposed or countered within the text at the level of choosing syntactic structure, transitivity, and metaphorical language. This work offers insight into language as an instrument for creating and maintaining colonial hegemony. The findings suggest that the critical narrative of empire in the story remains intertwined with imperial ideology, thus reflecting both a denunciation of colonial violence and a tacit complicity with imperial discourse.
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