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I started reading the introduction to The Heart of Darkness this morning, thinking that will get me into the mood of the story before I restart it. The introduction is written by Robert Hampson (of whom a quick Google search reveals little besides that he edits books by Conrad and writes books about Conrad) and is quite concise and well done -- I say this as someone who generally has trouble reading literary criticism. I am recognizing and identifying with points he makes, nodding in agreement, I think this background will really help my reading of the book itself. I was especially interested in his statement that the narrative structure (Kurtz's story told by Marlowe, told by the narrator) serves to distance the book from actual Africa (which continent is never named within the text) and make it more about European notions/archtypes of Africa. This rings a bell vis-a-vis the imagery I was getting while reading the first chapter, which was not all of the events in the story, more like a colloage of plot elements with stuff from outside the book.
posted morning of Thursday, May 13th, 2004
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